To Hell and Back
by Requiem-015
Summary: "i never thought that this would happen, not in a million years." Isaac's world is turned upside down when his mother "hears god talking to her" Isaac took action, seeking to avoid his doom, and now he is trapped in this labyrinth. what will happen? that is for you to find out dear reader!
1. Chapter 1

**Hello all of fanfiction! I come to you with my first story To Hell and Back. I hope that you will find the first chapter to your liking, I will warn you sometimes the story will be deep. some religious reference is made, there will be violence, and maybe later in the story a new companion or a few hey maybe even some love (get your head out of the gutter this is rated T,) and before I start so I am clear on this.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own binding of Isaac, any of its characters. They belong to the owners of the game.**

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Ch: pro

A boy by the name of Isaac lies on a splintering hardwood floor of a decrepit jail-like room. His living quarters, worse than a prisoners' by almost every sense of the word, plain beige wallpaper peeling off in strips. The stench of urine hanging thick in the air. Small piles of feces in a designated corner. A bed with deadly sharp springs sticking out the top. He had learned not to sleep in that death trap long ago, Food? Terrible! Breakfast: spoiled milk. Lunch: unknown disgusting substance. Dinner: a can of dog food. And if mom feels generous a dog biscuit or "snack." Things had gone sour, (not just "breakfast") when Isaac's mother had started receiving "visions," and hearing "voices" in her head. Now she rambled nonstop in the living room. Day in, and day out. This had been going on for months now and Isaac was feeling the pain from day 1. And he was a hardened child because of the months of torture but today was going to be different. while he lay on his rug, (which was the only place he could lie down on safely without risk of lacerations) he was playing with a red die with six faces he had hidden from his mom, between his fingers a grin sits smugly on his small slightly bone revealing face. Somehow his gut told him today was the day things changed. That for better or worse something was going to happen, sure he had gotten those feelings in his head before, but those were just hopeful thoughts. He quickly lost his train of thought when something stiff pressed on his spine from below. Curiosity aroused in his mind he quickly looked to the door and listened carefully. Christian TV programs playing softly in the background no talking, no moving. ' _Good…_ ' Isaac thought to himself and quiet as the mouse he learned to be, crouched next to the rug he earlier had laid on, slowly laced his fingers under the edge of the rug, and not before giving one last hesitant gaze towards the locked door, Lifted up the old rug. He saw nothing but old unexposed wood at first but as he lifted the rug up just a little more a small thin metal bar appeared, snugly hidden in the flooring. Eyes wide as saucers and hands shaking he lifted up the rug some more and then. Hope, determination, and relief filled his eyes as he set their gaze on to what would be his exit, his escape, his salvation. However, all happiness and color drained from his face the moment his ears picked up… rambling. He listened closely as he tried to hear what his mother was saying over the blood rushing in his ears. He managed to pick up a few phrases, but the last few sentences he heard nearly made his heart stop,

"yes, I have done as you have asked… yes? One more thing? What must it be my lord? Isaac himself…"

Isaac remains still as a statue,

"I will most certainly! If it is Isaac's life you require then you shall have it… yes… anything, for you… my lord!"

That moment she stopped talking Isaac harshly snapped back to reality, within a few seconds he knew what he had to do …it was live… …or die… his head snapped towards the door when his ears picked up the sound of movement he quickly and quietly opened the trap door and looked down a ladder leading to the edge of a small lake, deep enough to break his fall ' _perfect!_ ' he sub-consciously whispered to himself he affirmed that he would cover the floor with the rug where trapdoor was. Once again his metaphorical clock was ticking, as his signal for 'your life is over in 30 seconds, IF YOU DON'T MOVE YOUR BUT!' was the shrill metal against metal grind of a meat cleaver being removed from a magnetic bar on the wall in the kitchen. Isaac now half wedged in the trapdoor prepping his escape moved the carpet to where the small indent the trapdoor left on the fabric then slowly inching down the ladder closed the trapdoor inch by inch until an almost inaudible thus was heard in 10 seconds time he scaled down the 20 foot ladder and hid behind it, and not a moment too soon, far above he heard his mother's voice calm and distant but also questioning and desiring.

"Isaac? Where did you go Isaac…? ISAAC COME HERE NOW PLEASE!"

Half a minute passes

"I have bacon…"

Isaac's mother mused in a coaxing tone, and for a second just a lone second Isaac's head drooped as he looked up at the trapdoor mouth hanging open, drool slowly dripping out. Just then he realized what he was doingand shook his head in denial, knowing he fell for that trick nearly every time it was used on him. He then waited another minute

"He is gone… how am I supposed to make a sacrifice to my lord if I cannot find the offering."

Isaac leans against the wall in fetal position arms around his legs heart beating a thousand miles an hour, breath yet coming in slow and deep, eyes wide as plates that hold entire turkeys now...

"How am I to find him… could I? No… maybe i… mmm mm… too suspicious. Oooooooh missing child posters… yeah that will work! TO THE LIBRARY!"

A set of quick and heavy thumps causes dirt to fall around Isaac

"How does our government not care about this, how do they not just come and kill her, seriously though…"

Isaac spoke to himself, he knew he had to look around in this large cavern but his body was far too tired to do so and decided that he should rest, so he dug out a small hole under an overhanging mushroom hanging down from the wall, ate a "snack" he saved and fell asleep.

Isaac's journey begins

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 **I should have next chapter uploaded soon, also take note upload time can be decreased with your feedback, so do tell me! How am I doing? Do you want me to continue? Anything like that. Remember I am a first time writer, I cannot get better without practice and feedback from you guys**

 **Until next time…**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello all of fanfiction! I am here with the next chapter of… To Hell and Back! I hope you all will enjoy this chapter and hopefully the chapters to come! Before I start**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own binding of Isaac or its characters.**

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Ch pro cont.: nightmares to come

Isaac's sleep was fitful. Many visions of corpses: guts and organs strewn about the morbid landscape. Many with their jaws agape. Some missing limbs, others missing entire halves, all with their eyes missing or hanging out of their sockets, a deep voice spoke from the darkness "evil is everywhere, none can stop it, the only result human interference had caused is short lived suppression, and each and every time it happens we will rise stronger. evil is in everyone, no matter how small, just a seed is all that is required for us to take control of a human being." lightning flashed and fell from the dark skies revealing Isaac's mother holding a knife, the very same one she was to kill him with. Isaac tried to take off running but all he could do was stand there paralyzed. As his mother slowly lurched forward, the shape and detail of the knife came into view; it started rusting and all of the metal fell off in dust and chunks and was replaced with a small bone, a bone from the ribcage to be exact. The bone blade started to grow as Isaac's mother still kept lurching toward Isaac, growing small appendages resembling talons and the end of the hilt. Finally Isaac's mother was only 3 feet away from Isaac, she opened her eyes to reveal blood red spheres that bore into his soul. Though she seemed to wait for something. After a moment the deep voice spoke again only slowly with more phlegm and scratch in the tone. "I am Satan. Many have tried to resist my incessant calls to sin, and evil. But one and only one has failed." lightning flashed in the background and revealed a cross on a distant hill. "You are blessed to have survived my plot to end your life of earthly suffering, but next time you may not be so lucky." a groaning sound emitted from his mother's throat and her figure shifted restlessly. "And I come to you with an offer, you may join me in death and your suffering in the underworld will be fairly limited, compared to certain others. The choice is yours to make, but for now I shall let you ponder my offer, you may end his torment now." And with that Isaac's mothers' eyes opened widely and a gruesome smile of human and animal's teeth spread a foot across her face. She hunched over making a gurgling sound before she lunged up towards Isaac's throat, leading with the bone sword in her hands. as the blade was about to hit Isaac's neck his vision flashed white and he awoke startled, tears brimming in his eyes and hyperventilating with his hands to his throat, face white as a ghost, he sat up quickly in his little hovel and started to calm down. Still thoroughly shaken he decided to get out of his sleeping area to see if there was any way of getting out of there. The large frame of a door caught his interest, and was clearly visible by the two torches hanging on either side of the door. "… _that was not there before_ …" Isaac thought to himself. Hesitantly Isaac looked toward the ominous door, then to the trapdoor of which he had entered, then back at the door again. "I have no other choice, not like I want to sleep anyway."

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 **Once again thank you for reading! If you liked it, feel free to review and whatnot. The next chapter will be up sometime soon**

 **Until next time…**


	3. Chapter 3

**Just for a sec I would like to thank all of my readers and Booker Dewitt, and SamsonIsOP for the support! I hope you guys will continue to love the story! And Dewitt… suggestion acknowledged… I think you like what I have planned**

 **Hello all of fanfiction out there! I am here once again with ch 3 of… To Hell and Back! This one might be mildly interesting, but hey! What you may think of as interesting and what I may define as interesting writing may be 2 entirely different things… anyway you know what's next**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own binding of Isaac, or any of its characters.**

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Ch 2: the basement Pt 1

Isaac slowly walked over to the door wondering what awaited him, a slight breeze emitting ominously from the doorway. First he wondered if it was an item he could use to get out of there faster? Could it be long hallway leading to freedom? Or could it be a monster that would give a worse fate than being found by his mother? Isaac shuddered at the last thought, and entered the room cautiously and curiously, not sure of what to make of it. Upon first glance he saw rocks, boulders, and stones of all assortment in each of the room's four corners. Seeing that the room looked safe he took a few steps in. the draft that he felt just a second ago stopped dead. Each of the doors in the room closed before Isaac could turn to leave. Scared and slightly panicked he huddled against the door of which he came, and attentively gave another look about the room. He noticed a figure, laying down in the middle of the room it was headless and had blood leaking out from where the neck… was. Glancing quickly around the room and finding no more bodies he stood up slowly and made his way apprehensively towards the corpse. His conscience told him something was off, with his mind sped up due to the adrenaline he was able to think briefly about what it was exactly. He took a deep breath through his nose, in attempts to calm his nerves. Then realization hit him like a freight train " _this body… does not smell dead and rotten… but…but… nobody has been down here in forever, then that means-_ " his thoughts were interrupted when a deep gurgle/moan escaped the corpse's throat, Isaacs eyes wide as saucers watched the creature slowly hobble to its feet and stand in a slouched position knees slightly bent " _zombies… great! Now I've seen everything._ " Isaac mumbled in a sarcastic tone, which the zombie was able to hear. the pacer's body twitched, and Isaac froze. turning towards Isaac the headless body gave a noise that was a mix of growl and gurgle and advanced forward, Isaac panicking again sprinted towards the door he came in from and proceeded to pound on it until the zombie got about 10 feet away from Isaac, then he ran over to the door on his right which had a golden frame, a crown adorning the top of it. But that could wait until the zombie problem was dealt with.

This process lasted about a minute and a half before Isaac was back at the door he came in through and slumped down against it. the zombie was moving much slower than he was when they started the chase, but Isaac knew he could not escape. He waited too long to make a move and before he knew it the zombie lunged through the air and tackled Isaac against the door. It grabbed at Isaac's neck and started to squeeze the life out of him, Isaac all the while traumatized by this began to struggle against the zombies' hold, his short life flashing before his eyes thought _so this is it… this is going to be the end of my life, I am going to be eaten by this abomination while trying to escape my psychotic mother. I still have more things that I want to do… I will never grow up… I'll never see the world… i'll… never get a friend…_ Isaac never had a friend, he had always wanted a true friend. Someone there to experience life with him, someone who will be there to comfort him in a time of grief, like when he lost guppy. Someone who could always be there…no matter what life ever threw at them, the pessimistic, and saddened thoughts gave Isaac an epiphany, it sent Isaac over the edge. _I do have a say in my fate, and I am taking it!_ His struggling continued to get more and more fervent as these thoughts flowed through his mind _no! I will live to see adulthood! I will see all that I want to before my life ends! And I will find a friend to fight with me!_ the zombie holding him down, started to lose his grip, when Isaac finally yelled in rage "I WILL NOT DIE TO YOU, YOU CURSED ABOMINATION!" and with that he brought his feet to the zombie's ribcage and with great strength kicked the zombie off of him and sent it flying to the wall, he then continued to stomp over to the corpse on the ground, lift it in the air with one arm and threw it to the rocks in the corner of the room between the starting door and the gold framed one and left it on the ground to get up slowly, panting like an enraged bull. Hands clenched into fists hard enough to make his knuckles white. With one last war cry, Isaac charged towards the standing zombie dazed from its temporary flight, jumped three feet into the air. He then drew his legs to his thighs and when he got close enough brought his feet to the spine and ribcage of the zombie, with a clearly audible thud and several sickening snaps sent the zombie towards the rocks in the corner where it hit a rather large boulder.

The once humanoid figure upon smashing into the rock fell over backwards revealing just how much damage the lunge kick did. It's once only slouched spine bent backwards at a sharp angle a human spine is not supposed to be able to bend to, right where the kick landed at the bottom of the ribcage snapping the spine. Isaac looked on in slight horror and awe of what he had just done his rage gone and no traces of visible anger said to himself in a shaky voice "well… I guess I will need to do this constantly if I want to get out of here" with his thoughts finished he looked to the golden door frame of the item room and said with a slight frown "I just hope there are no zombies in there too."

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 **So that is all for this chapter! How did you like the action scene? Did I do good on that? Or, is it a weak point? Regardless thank you for reading! Tell me how I did! I am always willing to consider suggestions.**

 **Until next time…**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello all you people out there on fanfiction! I am back with another part of… To Hell and Back! I have decided each arc of the entire story (if I complete it) is going to be a singular floor basement 1. for example. is the first major arc of this story! Once again please enjoy, read away! And as always, before I get started…**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own binding of Isaac, or any of its characters.**

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Ch 2: the basement pt 2

"For the love of my sanity… please no more zombies," was all that Isaac could say to himself as he approached the golden framed door. Taking in detail of the door, he noticed a golden crown adorned the top of the frame, two golden chains hanging taut from either side of the crown, leading to the top corners of the door which appeared to take the shape of horns. Isaac sighed to himself "I can only hope this will be peaceful." Not looking back for one second he walked towards the golden door. Inside the room was plain; no rocks, same beige stone brick wall, the only thing that is different about this room is a small stone makeshift pedestal with light shining on it. He could not quite see what was on the pedestal. So Isaac decided to move a little closer to the lit pillar.

He saw 5 red cylinders with a timer on it. Immediately, Isaac leapt back in shock and fear knowing the bundle of cylinders as explosives, and knowing what they did to human flesh when activated. A few minutes passed and after peeking from the doorway he entered from, Isaac slowly reentered the room. After seeing no crater and or charred spot on the floor or walls, carefully placing each step as if a mine were under his feet he slowly made his way to the small pedestal, holding the intact explosives. Upon further observation there was a snugly hidden cable with a handle on the end with a red button on top, he sighed heavily in relief that only he could activate it, although... ...Something felt odd… the red die he always had with him was glowing red in his pocket, (he has beige cargo shorts on… oh so many story holes.) Realizing what role the explosives was supposed to play. He took the red D6 in his right hand, and gazed at it thoughtfully before grinning towards the bomb on the pedestal "sorry pal." Putting extra emphasis on 'pal.' "Offer declined!" he then threw the die at the bomb predicting what could happen. As the die got closer to the bomb the red beams of light emitting from it intensifying, time seemed to stop, and a thought crossed his mind. _Is what might happen really possible, is this place even real? Am I alive?_ a bruise and scratch here and there indicated, _yep defiantly alive._

The die made contact with the bomb and the room was bathed in orange light, blinding Isaac for a few seconds. After the blinding light died down he looked to see a rather large sphere of orange and yellow fire, collapsing in on itself. As the orb was compressed further it turned white. then when the orb of snow white light was small enough for Isaac to hold, the orbs' light broke off in beams revealing an infinitely black sphere. Once all of the light faded, Isaac felt something in his pocket. He took it out and was saddened, to find his die; with all of the faces having zero divots, and the color of the once crystal deep red, now translucent and hazy. "Crap…" Isaac stated to himself as his once prized possession, was now just a memory, but decided to keep it with him for keepsake. He then turned his attention to the small black orb floating above its pedestal, giving off embers and slight warmth.

Out of curiosity, Isaac made his way over to the object and stopped 1 foot before it, then cautiously inched towards it, and reached out as if to touch it, but he felt no heat. Finally making contact with the strange sphere, Isaac was very surprised to find that it did not burn, and it was not even that hot. It was just comfortingly warm, he held it with both hands, inspecting the strange orb, staring into its infinite darkness. It started to melt, now that would not have been a problem for Isaac, if it wasn't melting INTO his hands. Panicking on the inside he looked at his hands to see the orb was gone. Isaac felt this warm feeling in his hands that advanced up his arms and into his chest until it reached his heart. Then it remained stagnant there for a few seconds before his entire body was overwhelmed by warmth. glowing orange and floating in the air, Isaac could not say or think of anything at the moment. He was in awe of the feelings spreading over him and washing over every limb of his body like waves of fire. The glow and warmth dwindled then left, dooming Isaac to fall to the ground. Thankfully he was ready for it, and was able to land on his hand and knees. after rising shakily to his feet, Isaac looked at his hands for a minute and concentrated. A wisp of orange fire appeared a few inches above his hands, and he gazed at it in awe and wonder of what he had just done. he thought for a second, pondering all of the possibilities of what he had just learned. Getting an idea, Isaac put his left foot forward ant thrust his hand forward through the air. A fireball the size of his fist flew through the air before colliding with the wall and creating a charred spot, he chuckled at his new abilities rather mischievously. Advancing towards the doorway he grinned and stated "well… zombies aren't too bad now, are they." He closed his hand around a small fire dancing above his palm and left the room.

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 **Oooooh what have we here?! Isaac has Fire Mind! You can say the enemy will be feeling the heat! …no? Ok… well now Isaac is truly on fire! …I'm so sorry… -.-**

 **once again i would like to say thank you to all of my readers! the next chapter should be out soon. and finally...**

 **Until next time!**


	5. Chapter 5

**before i get started, much thanks to SereneFlames for the support and SamsonIsOP you guys are awesome!**

 **Hello all of FanFiction! I'm back with another part of… To Hell and Back! Read, enjoy, review, the usual.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own binding of Isaac, or any of its characters.**

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Ch 2: the basement pt 3

Entering the room where he killed his first zombie, Isaac liked his chances of living through this. With his new abilities he was sure that he would be okay, if not forever, at least for a while. He thought of which rooms he had been to, to his left the door to the starting room, the door he just came out of, and in front and to the right are doors he has not been in yet, He decided to head straight. In this room, 2 pacers, and some conveniently placed spikes in the center of the room… _piece of cake!_ Isaac thought to himself. He slowly walked up to the pacer, and shoved it saying "oops." The pacer fell to the ground gurgling angrily, the other pacer noticing this walked towards the source of the noise. Only to utter several pained grunts as it stepped on the spikes and fell to the ground gurgling not so happily, The other one struggling to get up. Isaac knew he had his work cut out for him, he meandered towards the pacer he shoved dragged it by the legs doing damage to it as he dragged the pacer towards the spikes. Once Isaac got close enough to the spikes he let the pacer get up. when the pacer was on its feet Isaac shouted "hey air-for-brains!" the pacer turns towards Isaac, and he punches the pacer square in the chest, sending it onto the spikes immediately killing the abomination, "You're dead!" Isaac retorted playfully. now turning his attention towards the immobile pacer Isaac hoisted the pacer into the air, "dad, taught me this one!" Isaac yells as he grabs the legs of the pacer, and spins around once before throwing it towards the spikes. When the pacer landed Isaac heard a large thud, followed by the sound of a door opening behind him. Isaac looked to the door then back to the corpses, his eyes widened slightly when he saw that they were gone, but he shook it off and headed towards the next room, but stopped in his tracks when he heard the sound of large wooden box falling to the ground behind him. He turned towards it to see what just happened. It was a chest, and it just fell from the ceiling "whatever." Isaac remarked, remembering his unheard of ability to conjure fire, so random boxes falling from the ceiling is a new norm, _this cannot be that bad, right?_ Isaac thinks and walks over to the chest and bangs on it with his fist, it was hollow on the inside but also heard something on the inside, what sounded like… coins. Cautiously Isaac opens up the wooden chest to find 5 coins laying in the bottom. Shrugging to himself he said "…well, why not?" picking up the 5 coins he set them in one of his pockets.

Continuing into the next room he looked at the walls and found solid grey stones, 4 campfires in the corners of the room, and spikes in the middle, his nightmare from yesterday echoing in his mind "nu-uh man, nice try." Isaac spat out Before quickly leaving the room, he went back to the room where he killed his first zombie, and sat down on a flat boulder using his mind to create a map. he remembered he went straight when he headed out of the room he got the fire abilities from, which meant… "That way," pointing to the door to the left of the golden door. "That way, is the way I have to go next." He got up and left the room, as he entered the next room, he took a minute to observe, his surrounding as always, and was mildly surprised to see tons and tons of boulders filling the entire room save for a hallway that led to the next room and another hallway that led to a wall… with a pacer in front of it. "hmmm…" Isaac slowly mumbled to himself, he took one look to make sure the pacer remained unaware, and closed his eyes. He held his left hand below his right and breathed deeply, as thought and will conjured many small wisps of orange and drew them into the center of his hands, to form a fireball, when the fireball was condensed into the size of a grapefruit his hands switched positions, he drew his arms back to his right side. He waited for a second before opening his eyes and in one swift motion shot his right arm forward and the fireball flew towards the pacer. An explosion rang out in the air, the pacer's body slammed against the wall and a thud echoed through the room. "Hollow?" Isaac said to himself. As the charred body fell to the ground revealing the cracked wall letting in a draft that cleared the smoke, Another thud sounded. Isaac looked behind his shoulder. A bomb "oh lovely…" Isaac stated sarcastically. he looked at the bomb in relief when he saw that the fuse needed to be lit for it to go off. he picked it up barely requiring 2 hands to do so, immediately knowing the bombs' purpose "well at least I do not have to hold on to it for long." He brought the bomb over to the cracked wall, and set it down against it. Isaac summoned an ember to his fingertip and lit the fuse, running behind all the other boulders going to the door he came in from. "BREACH AND CLEAR!" he did not know why, but he had always wanted to yell that. After about 5 seconds a deafening blast tore through the air, and the shock wave destroyed all the rocks around the blast zone. Had Isaac been only a few feet closer, he might have been injured. Isaac made a mental note _retreat to different room when using bombs._

The smoke cleared and a gaping hole in the wall greeted Isaac's eyes "humph!" Isaac breathed proudly to himself. Returning his attention to the wall, and or lack of, he walked into the hole to see what present or trap he had just opened. It resembled the room where he got his first ability; plain, compacted dirt walls and a pedestal. Ecstatic about his find, he sprinted towards the pedestal stopping three feet away from it to see what treasure he had found. Isaac tilted his head in confusion. What he saw was nothing out of the ordinary, just a weird looking key with a silver skull at the handle. "what's the use in not taking it, no skin off my back…" isaac remembered the bomb he used to get there in the first place "well… barely." He observed the key a little closer "I still don't see why I would need this, but I guess I'll find out later."

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 **So how was this one? There was a little more action here, what do you gust think this story needs more of? Leave a review if you like it, next chapter will be up soon. And as always!**

 **Until next time…**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello all of fanfiction! I am back with another part of… To Hell and Back! We are approaching the midpoint of the basement 1 arc, this story may be long and will consist of mainly XL floors until the room count evens out. I will add other details/jokes/terrible humor, only players may get. That is for you to find. Anyway, now for your daily…**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own binding of Isaac, or any of its characters.**

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Ch 2: the basement pt 4

"What kind of door will this open." Isaac wondered as he walked towards the exit of the room he discovered. He left the gaping hole in the wall to proceed to the next room, wondering what awaited him, he approached the next doorway, sighed and then walked in, Another pacer, a door to my left leading somewhere and a closed door on the right with a keyhole, "ok cool, new type of door. Zombie first, door later." Isaac reminded himself so that he would not get distracted. Isaac glanced at the pacer, to make sure he was still hidden, then observed his surroundings, nothing much. a single boulder stands 5 feet tall and looks easily climbable, "ah yes." Isaac stated quietly to himself and stealthily snuck over to the boulder and climbed to its top, observing how far the pacer was, Isaac realized he was in perfect lunge kick distance, Isaac crouched slightly before jumping into the air bringing his feet to his thighs, then as he had done the first time brought his feet which caught fire on their own, to the middle of the back. the fire from his feet brought some extra knock-back, causing the pacer to body slam the door without a keyhole cracking several bones, the pacer peeled off the door when it opened signifying it dead, "ok, next!" Isaac said to himself, before he took a step from where he was he crossed his arms tapping his foot staring at the ceiling, about 5 seconds later a glint shone and a chest fell to the ground, with a slam, this one had golden edging and hinges. Isaac unfolded his arms and approached the chest saying "that is more like it!" he crouched down to open it, and found it was locked, "well now I know what the key is for." He took the key with the silver skull out from one of his pockets and tried to put the key into the lock. A distinct 'click' sounded and Isaac opened the chest, he found a plain iron key and 5 more coins. "Ok cool, but what is this other key for?" putting the coins in his pocket grabbing his skeleton key from the lock on the chest, went over to the strange door with the lock on it and inserted the iron key and twisted it. A faint light shone from the key and it shattered inside the lock "ok I get it now." The door made a few clicking sounds before the doors opened, Isaac walked inside.

He was astonished at the shelves ascending into blackness with various odd items many of which were not describable. However what caught his attention was what looked to be a dead shopkeeper with a frown plastered on his unmoving face, and five items sat before Isaac all of them had white chalk numbers with some sort of currency sign next to them Isaac took one of the 10 coins he had out of his pocket and inspected it. golden, a 'c' mark on both sides, Isaac nodded in understanding. Isaac looked over the 5 items; a heart for 3 cents "why?" a bomb for 5 cents "I am not carrying THAT!" a battery for 5 cents "I'll find out later" and something a little out of the ordinary, a little blue paper with dots leading to an x on it for 7 cents with a words that said "DISCOUNT! 50%off!" Isaac took out 7 coins, "now what am I supposed to do here?" he asked himself, after using his rationality, Isaac shrugged and threw the coins towards the item not knowing what else to do. Each of the seven coins flashed golden light before disappearing, "well that works too." A slight rumbling sounded as the blue map floated up and stopped 3 feet in the air, a stone pillar rising from the ground as a normal item would have. he picked it up and looked closer at it the lines and the x disappeared and were replaced by outline of the rooms he had been in. none of the boxes had anything in the center accept for the one where he blew a hole open in the wall and a box separated from the rest in the distance, that one had a star in it too. "Secret rooms?" Isaac said not knowing what else to call them. Isaac decided he was done in the shop and left to head to the next room.

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 **Hope you guys liked reading! The next part should be here soon.**

 **i know this is getting to be a little repetitive, but when i got the idea, i prewrote all of the chapters up until one chapter from now. the plot thickens a little in part 5**

 **P.S. who all here is hyped for afterbirth DLC? Anyway…**

 **Until next time!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello once again all of fanfiction! I am here with another part of… To Hell and Back! Before I start…**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own binding of Isaac, or any of its characters.**

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Ch 2 the basement part 5

"What's behind door number five?" Isaac said with curiosity, as he stood at the doorway to the next room. Stepping into the room the doors closed behind him "me I guess…" he stated in an irritated tone. Before shaking it off in preparation of what the room held. In the center of the room a lone corpse lay. Isaac was slightly confused as to why the doors closed behind him when there is a lone corpse to get rid of. His question was answered when the corpse rose to its feet swiftly and whipped its head to glare at Isaac with a grin and eyes that bluntly spell ill intentions. "Oh, that's why." Isaac stated to himself. The corpse groaned, in delight of finding its next meal, and hobbled towards Isaac at an alarming pace. Isaac seeing this, squeaked in surprise and ran around in circles while the gaper pursued relentlessly. Isaac had to observe on the go, only taking in little details as he ran, first he ran by some boulders _a little too risky…_ he thought to himself. Then he ran by a blank wall, _not much use here…_ Isaac continued running just a little faster than the zombie to try to conserve his energy. Boulders lining the third wall with a pit in the middle "perfect!" Isaac managed to say between breaths, and stopped before the pit and waited for the zombie to approach almost at running speed, Isaac waited for the moment to strike, _just a little closer…_ Isaac thought. The zombie brought his arms up to strike Isaac, "NOW!" his mind yelled. The zombie swung down, Isaac jumped out of the way, and before the gaper could recover. Isaac slammed a punch to its back, smacking into the wall and falling down the pit. "Phew, that was close… too close" Isaac stated relieved. A gold chest fell from the ceiling… "cool!" Isaac said happily, taking the skeleton key out of his pocket, inserted the key. As before it made a distinct 'click' and Isaac opened the cover with ease. Inside was 2 coins and a bomb. "OH MY GOD!" the sight of it caused Isaac to jump several feet backwards. The bomb was fortunately not lit. So after recovering from his heart attack, he grabbed the 2 coins and looked to the next doorway, leaving the bomb in case he needed it later. Approaching the next doorway he sighed heavily wondering _will this ever end?_ he shook his head to get rid of the thought and proceeded to go to the next room.

he was welcomed by the sight; bottomless pits in each of the four corners spikes in the middle some head sized rocks, _who ever made this room, thank you!_ Isaac thought while looking through the ceiling. A pacer next to a pit, in it went. A pacer next to the spikes, rests… eternally. A rock slammed to the neck of another pacer preventing gurgling, Isaac drags the pacer next to a pit, and it struggles to get up "hey buddy!" Isaac removes the rock from the disoriented pacers' neck "catch!" he tosses the rock to the pacer's chest and sends it into the pit, which caught the last pacers attention. the pacer runs towards Isaac, who sidesteps gingerly and chuckles, while the pacer dies to its own ignorance. Having cleared the room the door to the next room opens. Isaac being patient, he waited until the sound of a coin dropping to the floor, this one was a little different; it was slightly wider and thicker than the penny and had a 5 on the back "hmm!" Isaac hummed and picked up the nickel and set it in his pocket. "next room," Isaac stated tiredly, walking towards the next room.

he peeked his head around the door, to see what awaited him in this arena. A few large mushrooms in each of the four corners, nothing interesting. Isaac stepped into the room his map that located "secret rooms," flashed blue, when the blue flash disappeared a thought manifested from nothing. Isaac gazed thoughtfully at the center of the wall to his left, before picking up a small rock and throwing it at a particular spot, heard a hollow banging sound when the rock hit the wall. "Aha!" Isaac said to himself and patted the blue map in his pocket before continuing to observe, nothing was out of the ordinary, and he turned to go to the next room, that is when he saw the door to the boss room. "that... cannot be good." Observing the door, he saw a large skull staring down at him, and two other skulls staring off to the sides at either top corner of the door frame. the doors themselves were blood red and open with red light pouring out, "I'm not in the mood. Not right now." Isaac yawned, though he could not see light of day, he had gained an impeccable sense of time. he knew the time when he slept was approaching. He thought about where to sleep, when he remembered he had yet to open the second secret room, he went quickly and grabbed the bomb from the chest he had opened earlier. Placed it next to the wall like he had done last time and concentrated until a small flame came to his fingers and carefully lit the fuse. After which he took off running out of the door he came in through and huddled against the wall. A few seconds later a flash of orange light followed closely by a thunderous shock wave shook the cavern. After Isaac ceased to hear rubble raining from the skies, he re-entered the room, and just as expected he found a gaping hole blowing away the smoke from the blast. "Sweet!" Isaac said almost tiredly.

as he entered. He saw the walls were grey stone brick with grey skulls lining the walls towards where the wall met the floor. In the center, slightly offset to the left was a fortune telling machine. And mirroring the position of the fortune teller was a pillar, the telltale sign of a treasure. On top of the pillar was what looked to be a brown organ, below it on a paper card on the pillar read "raw liver" below it were some words reading "HP up!" he took the organ in his hand and thought "what the heck am I supposed to do with this?" his stomach growled "oh you have got to be kidding me. Am I eating THAT?" Isaac stated holding up the organ. Again, his stomach growled. "Eh, why not?" Isaac took a bite of the raw liver, it was bland and chewy. "Not half bad!" Isaac stated with his mouth full, After all he had been having food that tasted worse for months. So this was a welcome break. About 5 minutes later he finished the raw liver. Then he went over to the fortune teller, on the ground in front of it was a single penny, shrugging, Isaac picked up the penny and put it in the coin slot. The machine started rumbling and making clicking and clattering noises before a ding was heard and a small slip of paper fell out, Isaac took it in his hands and read it "follow dreams to the voice of good. And live an afterlife prosperous and good." Isaac was confused by these words and put the fortune in his pocket. He left the room, and thought about what he had done that day. His thoughts were interrupted when a yawn escaped his lips, he went to find the closest thing to a bed, he didn't have to go far, as the closest thing to a bed was a large flat mushroom it was dry and the surface was almost soft. "That was easier than I expected" Isaac said tiredly. He took one last glance at the boss room door and said "tomorrow, tomorrow will be a good day" before falling into a deep sleep from the day's happenings.

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 **i am sorry things got a little repetitive before. it brings down the entertainment factor of the story, and for many of the first chapters, i let it slip. if anything ever seems out of place, tell me in a review, or PM. i am always willing to take feedback and suggestions.**

 **once again thank you for dealing with me and my first time writing, i promise! next chapter and the one after that one should be interesting!**

 **Until next time!**


	8. Chapter 8

**alright! i am caught of with you guys. When i have this chapter posted, the boss battle will not be written yet, so i can actively receive and reply to feed back and suggestions. so fire away!**

 **Hello once again all of fanfiction! I am back with another part of… To Hell and Back! Today things might get interesting and a little deep, no spoilers for you! What time is it? ...Disclaimer time... what did you expect?**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own binding of Isaac, or any of its characters.**

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Ch 1 the basement pt 6

It never seems to fail. When Isaac want to sleep most, he has disturbing dreams, or horrible nightmares. Tonight was no different. Isaac expected to wake up in a barren wasteland cold as the rocks that surrounded him, or in the underworld, burning like the corpses that encompassed him indefinitely. But instead, he found himself in cathedral, one whose walls are built of light blue stone, and the tall windows watching the inside of the cathedral like a sacred haven. Isaac woke up on a bed adorned with snow white cloth as soft as clouds. A wonderful assortment of colors harshly flooded his eyes as he sat up in this strange bed and waited for his eyes to adjust before getting up.

Isaac found himself in the sanctuary. Many rows of benches lining the area, and a vibrant red carpet leading the way to the foot of the pulpit. Nothing much awaited Isaac, laying down. "I guess I should cherish this while it lasts." Isaac mumbled. "And wise you would be to do so." A peculiar voice chanted from afar. At the end of the red carpet stood a boy, he looked to be the same age as Isaac, 15, and he wore a white robe whose edges are lined with gold at the opening for the hands, feet and down the middle of the robe. "Come!" the voice spoke "we have much to discuss!" Isaac wandered up to the front of the red carpet, and found the boy to be sitting down on one of the benches in the front, "come, sit!" the boy said genially, Isaac sat down next to the boy, a little confused as to what is going on.

"So, uh… why am I here?" Isaac asked looking around, "because I am here to state the facts. There have been many misconceptions designed to confuse you, am I right?" the boy asked, "uh, yeah. That pretty much describes my life for the past day or so." Isaac stated matter of factly. "So ask me any questions, about things that confuse you," the boy said. Isaac started running through all of the questions in his head but decided order would give him as much understanding as possible, so Isaac thought back to when this journey started, and stated the question "why, is my mother trying to kill me if she is Christian?" the boys usually happy demeanor turned mildly downcast at the question and sighed before answering "she was manipulated." the boy stated bluntly, "bent to the will of the voice in her head." He paused before continuing "it is true that you are supposed to follow gods commands, but if even half of the people that have voices in their heads pick up a bible and read it in full, they would know it is just the devil speaking hollow words in a nice tone, very rarely does gods instruction allow killing of any kind." The boy stated. Isaac took a moment to let the words sink in and thought of when his mother came to kill him. The ludicrous command the voice gave her was not of good, but of well disguised evil. As the thought passed, it led into his journey. Memories of the first things he had done came back to mind, more specifically when he killed the first zombie "but, but what about the, uh…" Isaac stammered "abominations?" the boy finished. "Yes those, monsters trying to kill me, is me killing them evil?" Isaac questioned "hmmm," the boy hummed and looked deep in thought, "the monsters you speak of are the preserved bodies of those who have fallen, before you went into that dungeon, and the devil keeps the corpses to use for his evil game. He kills those who enter, without thought or remorse, and uses them for the same purpose, it is a meaningless cycle of endless death only resulting in more lost souls!" the boy stated rather angrily. Isaac sat still eyes wide staring at the boy in fear "sorry," the boy said apologetically "I can tend to lose control of myself like that." Isaac nodded in understanding before the boy continued "it is not. As long as you remember it is for your survival. Not for lust, or pride." Isaac thought for some time before asking "will I make it through this?" Isaac asked, the boy paused. "I am sorry, I cannot tell you. It is not destined for you to know." Isaac tilted his head in confusion, but shook it off. There were still many questions that needed to be answered.

Isaac continued to ask countless questions, remembering answers and listening intently. Five minutes passed and Isaac left the important questions for last Isaac's time to ask those important questions arrived when the boy he sat next to stated "make haste, I only have a few minutes to talk left." The light around the cathedral had intensified slightly. Isaac took a second to remember the list of important questions he needed to ask. "First, what about my abilities, fire, the like?" Isaac quizzed hastily "part of your destiny." the boy was quick to reply, "what is at the end of all of this?" Isaac continued "the reward for your journey, is determined solely on your decisions on good and evil." The boy replied "am I even alive at the moment?" the boy paused and with a smile on his face, replied "seriously?" Isaac replied "I'll take that as a yes." The boy got up and spoke "my time is up here, remember the words I have said and you may be alive by the time you leave the labyrinth." Isaac forgot to ask the one question he needed to. the boy was walking towards the entrance of the cathedral. When Isaac blurted in desperation, "will I ever find a friend?" the cathedral seemed to start melting away with white light. The boy turned around, with a smile growing on his face. He slowly replied with happiness, knowing the answer "i… think you will be… pleasantly, surprised." He stated before finally saying "goodbye Isaac, god bless you, and be careful!" and with that, the boy disappeared. The rest of the cathedral including the chair Isaac sat on, evaporated in light, and Isaac floated in air before losing conciseness again. When Isaac returned to the world he knew and more or less loved, he opened up his eyes to find he was on the same, flat, mushroom bed he fell asleep on last night. He closed his eyes again and sighed deeply. He opened his eyes and dug his fortune out of his pocket, re-reading it with new understanding "follow dreams to the voice of good. And live an afterlife prosperous and good." His eyes now set on the door with red light pouring out from it, Isaac stated with a serious expression, "Follow them…"

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 **Next part is going to be the end of the first arc basement 1, and the chapter following will be the first part of the basement** **2** **arc. Which also means…** **boss battle** **! Anyway I hope you guys enjoyed, and keep an eye out for the next chapter.**

 **Until next time!**


	9. arc 1 end

**Hello! And welcome one and all of my readers, to the final part in the first arc of To Hell and Back! This is the chapter you (might) have been waiting for! I won't keep you waiting any longer**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own binding of Isaac, or any of its characters**

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Ch 2 the basement finale

 _God bless you, and be careful!_ Those words echoed through all of Isaac's thoughts, as he stood in front of the door that lead to what could be his final stand. Although he looked calm on the outside, on the inside, he was really quite nervous. He did not know what exactly was on the other side of the door, but from what he has gathered from his dream last night, and the way the door stared down at him menacingly, he could tell it was dangerous. Isaac swallowed, _if I do not proceed how am I to complete my journey… I have no other choice_. Isaac closed his eyes and took a deep breath, _besides… It, wants me to quit now doesn't it._ Isaac toke slow steps towards the door, watching the red light pour from its entrance, Isaac stopped when he passed through the red light, to find himself in a torch lit short hallway. Crudely created drawings covered the walls and all of them depicted a large worm-like creature, most of them doing horrible things to corpses. Isaac shook his head and focused on the entrance to the room ahead of him. He was about to enter the room, when a shine above the doorway leading out of the hall, and into the arena. "PIN" the small dark metal plaque read. "Follow them" Isaac repeated to himself before shaking off his nervousness, and walking into the arena.

The arena was larger than a normal one, a little less than double the size of a normal room, ceiling was higher than normal, but what unnerved Isaac slightly, was that the dirt was… softer… than normal. He took a combat stance when he heard the door behind him shut, the sound echoing repeatedly in the larger room. Isaac sensed a disturbance, looking to where he heard faint rumbling, he saw the top of a snake-like form slither in and out of the ground seeing skin colored patches of the monster. Pin slithered back into the ground before sticking its head out of the ground half of its body slithering to meet with it, it reared its head and spat a glob of explosive blood towards Isaac, Isaac knew better than to stand around, and see what it does. So he jumped out of the way and landed on his feet, the blood shot landed three feet away from Isaac and detonated on impact damaging Isaac a little. Pin then dove back into the ground, Isaac recovering from the dodge and blast, looked up just in time to see pin shoot out of the ground and fly into the air. Isaac looked on, shocked that such a creature is able to even do that, before pin crashed into Isaac, he once again jumped out of the way. Isaac concentrated as best he could to conjure a fireball, while jumping out of harm's way frequently. When Isaac created a fireball big enough to throw, he waited for pin to jump out of the ground again, but pin only rose some of his body out of the ground to fire another blood shot. Knowing he had the perfect opportunity, Isaac charged towards pin with the fireball in his hands and brought the sphere to pins side pin writhed in pain and shot back underground, he did damage but not very much. As pin immediately shot out of the ground behind him and plummeted towards Isaac, Isaac could not dodge, and was blown back by the impact of pin reentering the dirt, and was sent to the wall. Before Isaac could get back up, pin reappeared in a different area to shoot another glob. Isaac once again unable to dodge. Had taken the bullet head on, Isaac was barely able to get up, most of his energy drained from him, he watched as pin leapt out of the ground again. Drawing energy he did not have, he jumped out of the way, and missed pin by only inches. He started to lose focus, thoughts coursing through his mind on the circumstance he was in and what his life had come to, once again his life was flashing before his eyes. Not focusing on anything in particular accept for the dream he had last night, remembering the questions he asked and the answers he got for them. As dodging continued, he scanned over the thoughts. "what about my abilities, fire, and the like?" Isaac asked the boy in his memory, "it is part of your…" Isaac's thoughts stopped cold before they let him remember the last word "…destiny." The word echoed in his mind. Pin lunged out of the ground again, Isaac dodged like there was nothing to it, his thoughts continued as he remembered more of the conversation he had with the boy in the cathedral. "Will I ever find a friend?" Isaac remembered asking as the boy answered smiling "I… think you will be… pleasantly surprised." Isaac was filled with hope as the thought finished. Pin appeared to shoot another glob, Isaac dodged effortlessly. Isaac had not known but an orange glow started to appear around his body, the fire of hope and determination filling him with strength. He then remembered the question that would help him turn the tables against pin. "Will I make it through this?" Isaac's thoughts stopped again as he stared at pin lunging through the air. Isaac dodged and waited as a different answer he did not know applied to the question "the reward for your journey, is determined solely on your decisions…" Isaac's hands caught fire and his entire aura transformed from a burning orange to a vibrant blue, when he thought, _my decisions… I have control…_ pin appeared and shot another glob that Isaac dodged without thinking went back to his last questions original answer ". It is not destined for you to know." Isaacs's eyes snapped open as he thought to himself, _but today… I, control my destiny. And I choose to live! And outlast ALL adversities! Overcome ALL obstacles. And defeat ALL OF MY ENEMIES!_ Isaac was infused with hope, courage, and power, to surpass all. Pin wanted to kill Isaac bored and frustrated that his prey is escaping him so easily, and slithered through the ground before firing itself high into the air, and plummeted towards Isaac. Isaac snapped his head upward and leapt into the air by creating a small explosion by his feet, and continued to propel himself into the air. When Isaac got up to where pin was he waited until pin was in grabbing distance. With incredible strength, he caught pin in midair and flipped while chucking the worm into the ground. Injuring it Isaac then used gravity to his advantage and caused a blue explosion, that sent pin into the air, and flew up after him a fist enveloped in blue fire ready to end pin, when he yelled out loud "TODAY, I RULE MY DESTINY!" pin came within striking distance, and Isaac did not let the opportunity slip. With one final war cry, he landed an overpowered punch to pin that caused a fiery blue nova. sending it to the wall, the impact killing it instantly. Isaac lowered himself to the ground, and before he could think of anything the blue fire surrounded him in a pillar and was gone, disappearing into the ceiling. Isaac looked to pin to see if it was dead, and sighed in relief that all that remained was a worm creature, non-moving, lacerations up and down its body, bones sticking out here and there, and lying in a pool of blood.

Isaac stood up shakily slightly drained of his energy. And looked around for something anything he had hoped at that point, anything would work, the ground shook, a small pillar of stone protruding from the ground, Isaac approached it to see what it held; a bone with some meat on it. "Food…" Isaac said entranced by the thought of the heavenly sustenance that floated before him.

-5 minutes later-

Isaac licked his lips contentedly, when he heard the stone walls breaking down and a pearl colored frame appeared in the wall, a cross with wings adorning the top of the frame, white light started to pour out of the frame and Isaac decided it would not hurt to enter.

Isaac found himself in a room themed like the cathedral he was in, in his dream. He looked around and the same boy he had conversed with stood upon the floor although his image was hollow with sparks of light coming from the inside. "I see!" the boy exclaimed "you lived! I knew you could do it! I had no doubt what so ever that you wouldn't thrive!" the boy exclaimed. "Good to see you too!" Isaac stated happily. "I am sorry I cannot stay here long, I am here to congratulate you and give you this! The boy stated pointing to a golden ring floating above a marble pedestal, "what is it?" Isaac quizzed looking at the ring thoughtfully. "That is for you to find out" the boy replied "anyway, I must go." the boy said before he could leave Isaac interrupted, "wait! Hold up!" the boy turned "thank you, for everything." The boy smiled happily "it was no problem!" the boy said genially before fading away as the rays of light that constructed him, disappeared.

Isaac left the room of the cathedral and found the door disappeared behind him. He found a trapdoor leading down and it was not a long distance to the next floor maybe only ten feet. He thought to himself while staring at the entrance to the next floor _I must be willing to suffer, to escape. to do anything, to survive. Even if it means…_ Isaac cut his thoughts and said smiling "going to hell and back!" Isaac exclaimed before hopping to the next floor.

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 **So that is it! No ot the end of the story just the end of the first arc… dang that took me a while…**

 **Anyway tell me what you guys think, what are you excited for? What do you think will happen next arc? Who will Isaac encounter? You certainly won't find out now. Leave a review, fav, follow, whatever! Anyway**

 **Until next time!**


	10. arc 2 pt 1

**Hello all of fanfiction! I return, with the beginning of the second arc in To Hell and Back! This one will be more enjoyable than the last arc I promise! And it will add some interesting information. Before I start…**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own binding of Isaac, or any of its characters.**

 **P.S. I will be changing the format of the name that I put in each chapter, you will see what I mean**

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Arc 2 pt 1 the father he never had.

Isaac landed on the next floor with a light thud landing on his hands and knees, before rolling to make sure he did not take any damage from the jump. His fight with pin may have only been five or ten minutes, but it took almost all of his energy out of him. Even though it was early in the day, he was as tired as he was before he fell asleep last night, and decided to take a nap.

This time, his dreams went back to his family. His dreams brought him back to when his father had not left, he was brought back to the times when his life was enjoyable. He remembered that his father would play games on a computer he used to have in his room. He would play all sorts of games with bright, vibrant colors. Ever since Isaac was a toddler even, he always took an interest to his father's doings. Every Sunday night his father would bring him to a friend's house and play a weird and yet cool looking game called castles and chimeras… or something like that.

He always enjoyed it, but then his mother started becoming overprotective of what the boy was exposed to, and he started going less, and less until he hardly went at all. Before his father left, he gave Isaac the one thing that would keep him going, at least until now, "Isaac," his father spoke in a gentle tone, "I know these things can be hard to understand, and I am sorry I have to do this now, but in the future you will understand. Soon enough." Isaac stared at his father with eyes wide and brimming with tears, "will I ever see you again?" Isaac asked in a shaky voice. "I don't know," his father stated plainly, "but I know you will stay strong. For if we do see each other again." Isaac's father pulled him into a warm embrace, "I'm gonna miss you dad," Isaac whispered shakily, his father replied "I'm gonna miss you too, Isaac. I'm gonna miss you too." And pulled out of the hug "Your uncle wanted me to give you this, before I go. Maybe someday you can re-roll your destiny." his father stated with a smile, and gave Isaac, the one thing he would hide from everyone as if it were his own fragile heart, the very same red die with six faces that he held in his pocket as he sleep. "Thank you dad, I will never forget it!" Isaac stated proudly to his father, "that's my boy, I have to go now, don't tell your mother we talked ok?" Isaac's father questioned in a serious tone, "ok." Isaac replied simply, and watched as his father left the house, not before saying "I love you Isaac." Isaac's flashback was going white and when it fully disappeared, he woke up. He sat up on the soft dirt he slept on, a single tear rolled down his face. "I understand, father I understand." Isaac reached into his pocket, and brought out the crystal red D6, happy that it was somehow restored, and stated with a smile on his face "I have not forgotten, and I will stay strong, for you." Isaac proceeded to stand up and face the door to the next room and stated, voice full of determination "and I will continue, I will re-roll my destiny, I will live."

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 **So how was the first part of the second arc? Don't worry, there will be more backstory in the next chapter, just not in the way you think! Anyway hope you enjoyed, read, review, what not. And as always…**

 **Until Next time!**


	11. arc 2 pt 2

**Hello one and all of fanfiction, and welcome to the second part to the second arc of To Hell and Back. I will not keep you waiting any longer. So… LE'S GET TO IT!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own binding of Isaac, or any of its characters.**

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Arc 2 pt 2 in with the wrong crowd

A baby is born, missing its left eye. The mother names him, Cain. Simple right? No. it is much more complicated. Cain, was born into a family of business people, his entire family had ways of making money: his 15 year old brother makes money by selling valuable rocks he digs from the ground, his mother, a famous accountant, good at what she does. His father was a millionaire, made rich by family inheritance and wise financial choices. Many aunts and uncles, in varying industries bring wealth to the Stonetumbler family. Cain was to be the next heir to the inheritance and his father taught him everything he needed to, and possibly could have wanted to know about business, and money. Cain learned well as he saved over a thousand dollars in a family held account, before he was six. However Cain chose to be in with the poor of all people, he found their lives to be interesting, he said he had wanted to be strong, he wanted to be a powerful kid both politically and physically. And so his father hired a trainer, to help him become stronger. He eventually got to be really strong and thanked his trainer before dismissing him.

Greed got the better of him, he wanted to be more like his father, only greedier. So he used ludicrous scams, barely not criminally, that is one important detail he remembered from his financial training. And got a bunch of money, he donated some to poor people, he gave much to the family while keeping as much for himself as possible, without seeming stingy. His father eventually found out about this and scolded him for his crimes. Cain angered by his father's disciplining, continued to gain as much for himself as possible before he realized something crucial. His money, his wealth, it brought him no joy, all of the finances he accumulated, suddenly had no value. He saw his mistake and went to apologize to his father, "I cannot begin to say how sorry I am for being greedy, my wealth, it brings me no joy." Cain said head hanging in shame. His father smiled, knowing his son would come to knowledge, eventually. "It is okay, I forgive you." Cain's father stated kindly, "have a seat son," Cain's father motioned with his hand for him to sit on a couch next to him, velvet red and comfy enough for a bed he sat down next to his father apprehensively, not knowing whether he was getting punishment or not. His father continued to speak "everyone has experienced greed in their life, and yes. Even I have once been overcome by greed." Cain looked to his father, and asked in disbelief "you have?" Cain's father smiled fondly remembering and only remembering his foolish ways as a teen "yes, when I became greedy, I was sixteen. The age of computers came into being and I invested a lot into it with stock and the like. " Cain sat, listening intently. "I found because of how useful these computers were, I got a huge return! However greed struck me like a hailstone and I was becoming more and more desiring of money and I did everything I could, to get it. Even if it meant involving myself with… undesirable people." Cain looked on in wonder, of what would happen next. "I found all of the wealth and money I had, it did not sate my desire for something more, and so I cut my plans as soon as I could. But it was already too late." Cain now looked on in fear, seeing the downcast sad gaze of his father. knowing something bad would happen, not to mention the fact that the story was almost parallel to his. "I was done with a scam I pulled and was making the last collection, your uncle, or my brother, bob. Was with me, things got rough where we made the deals. The transport came, we got the money and were about to make off when a thug who had been secretly watching us, came out with a gun pointed at my brother, thinking that he was the one making the deals. And shot him. It was then, that an epiphany washed over me that money has no value compared to family and life," a tear welled in Cain's father's eye, "how did you make it out alive?" Cain questioned fearfully. Cain's father looked down in anger, fists clenched in rage "I killed him." He stated shakily, not wanting to go into the bloody, gory, gruesome, and horrid details with his 15 year old son. He then did something that Cain would never forget, he grabbed Cain and pulled him into a hug, "I will never forget what happened to my brother, and I am glad you have realized that money isn't everything." After surprise left Cain, he hugged back and stated quietly "thanks dad," a phrase his father had always wanted to hear that would warm his heart to no end. "Your words have meant more to me than any amount of money ever could." Cain stated gratefully "but…" Cain stated fearfully before looking his father in the eye. "There is a problem." Cain's Father looked on in seriousness, seeming to know what has happened, before slowly stating in a deadly calm tone "there… is a parallel to our stories… isn't there, Cain?"

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 **Oooooooh! Ain't I the meanest person alive? Leaving you with a cliffhanger! Anyway I hope you guys enjoyed. Read, review and enjoy the suspense of a cliffhanger. While I hastily form part 2.5**

 **Until next time!**


	12. arc 2 pt 2 continuation

**Hello one and all of fanfiction, today we have a special one for you! I have worked on this for 3 or so days now and I am loving the result… so sit back, grab some popcorn, and of course leave a review and maybe even a favorite after the movie… 'cause THIS IS GONNA BE A LONG ONE!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own binding of Isaac, or any of its characters**

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Arc 2 pt 2 continued

"Yes," Cain stated quickly "my greed got me involved in a bad area of town, my final collection is tomorrow, at the 35th bank. It is the black market of the city." Cain stated shamefully his father stared at him thinking before lightening up a bit. "I know the owner, I cannot have intervened in my brother's fate but I do my darndest to protect yours." His father got up from the couch and went to a desk and sat down, before picking up a phone that was built into the desk "yessir!" a young adult male voice sounded through the speaker "Hermes, now is your time to shine! I need you to get me on a secure phone line with asset-01." Cain's father spoke into the phone. The voice on the other side replied hesitantly "Sir, are you sure about this?" Knowing about asset-01 and his position, he questioned suspiciously. "yes I shall not relive '87 with my son!" the voice on the other end stuttered "oh! I uh aaaah, I'll notify all of his major assets! I'll make sure you are on the line with him in the next 5 minutes or so!" Cain's father continued to go over to a shelf and attempt to take out a book, upon pulling the book, the shelf made a clicking sound before, Cain's father stepped aside and let the bookcase fall back into the wall and slide into it, in the secret room, was an archive. Containing lists of members in the family and assets of it. Along with permits and deeds to different buildings and such, Cain's father walked over to the blueprints immediately, and quickly found a blueprint of the most recent changes and total structure of the 35th bank. He pulled a lever from the inside of the archive and made his way out 5 one second ticks were heard before the bookshelf slid back into place, he looked through the floors and the motioned Cain to come over "where?" his father quizzed, Cain found the spot on the blueprint "There, H16. That is where my friend will be." Cain's father looked to his son inquisitively "a good friend, we meet early. I would trust no other person." His father pulled some paper and pencils out from a drawer and started scribbling many small neat numbers when the phone rang, Cain's father picked up the phone, an older man spoke through the phone in a Russian accent "boulder long time no see! What is the deal my friend? You only come to me when you need info." Knowing that whenever 'boulder' called he meant business. "Vik, I know this is a touchy subject, but do you remember '87?" the Russian voice replied in a mildly bitter tone "yes. '87 was bad for the market, here at the bank. Why do you ask?" Cain's father stated painfully, "I wish to not let history repeat itself." Vik, knowing what the phrase meant, questioned in a deep serious tone "who?" Cain turned to his father, who looked back in seriousness "junior." He stated.

Cain waited anxiously as the conversation between his fathers and "Vik" continued for hours, the only breaks they made were to eat, every now and then a question was shot towards him and he answered "what does the delivery guy look like" Cain's father questioned, Cain replied he wears non-descript black and dark red clothes. I can't miss him though, he wears a dark red headband." Cain's father pleased by the answer, replied "good." And continued to plan with Vik, the question got him thinking, _Sam… is he really a friend? I mean sure we spend a lot of time with each other casually, but does he consider me a friend?_ His thoughts were cut short when his father motioned for him to come forward, "one last question," he said "total payout, this is the most important piece of information you can give me, and I need you to be 100% honest, what is the payout?" Cain went white, remembering the last collection would be the largest, "it's okay, you can tell me. It will help you." Cain screwed his eyes shut and grimaced before growling through his teeth, "one-hundred thousand," his father's eyes went wide before he spoke into the phone hesitantly, "100k." he then waited for a response, "ok, it is done, as long as it is 25%." Cain's father smiled "yes, glad to do business with you, sir! Goodbye." And hung up the phone. He stood from his desk, and approached Cain. "Go, get some rest. You will need it, son." He hugged Cain, before he went to bed.

Cain could not fall asleep for hours, with the current situation running rampant through his mind. He was playing out all of the different possible outcomes, more of the worse ones than the pleasant ones. He shook the thoughts from his head and at about midnight he was able to fall asleep, though he would not sleep quietly. He woke up on the outside of the 35th bank pitch black on the sidewalk and the rest of existence blacked out accept for the front of the bank and the faint grey light pouring from the doors. Cain stood up on the invisible floor and made his way towards the doors, and opened them he found he was in the lobby of the bank, absolutely nobody was in sight, the staircase leading to the second floor blurred and replaces with a solid mass of shifting grey and black wisps of void. all hallways blotted out in the same manner accept for the hallway that lead to the vault. He remembered the vault had nothing in it as this was a black market and anything stored there would be gone in a heartbeat, so he advanced towards it. Very dim ceiling lights lined the hallway until the vault room appeared brightly on the left. Once he entered the vault, he saw a figure leaning against the wall in a black hoodie and grey bleached jeans a black backpack in his left arm. The figure approached Cain and set down the backpack down, then his left hand reached towards the hood he had on his head, completely shrouding his identity. And pulled it off; revealing average length brown hair, parts of it sticking up at the sides where a red headband laid across his forehead, "Sam," Cain spoke, Sam simply nodded. Cain reached for the bag beside Sam but found the backpack to be gone, "not today, Cain. Today… fate, has different plans for you." When he finished the statement, a beam of light shone in from the brick wall at the end of the vault. The light came from a seam in a single brick, the light, spread as the brick slid into the wall replacing it with white light all of the bricks around it started to do the same until a crudely formed passage replaced the center of the wall, "go, and may god have mercy on your soul." _Gee! thanks for the encouraging words._ Cain subconsciously whispered, before walking towards the light.

When he entered the passage his vision faded, and Cain woke up in his bed. Light was shining in the window of his room, and birds were chirping happily in the trees outside, "awfully lovely for the day I might die huh." Cain deadpanned at his surroundings, disappointed there was no rain. At least, not yet. The sky was overcast. He sat up in his bed and decided to get dressed. After he was dressed in an orange shirt and plain black cargo shorts, and a deep blue hoodie. (Shut up, cargo shorts are awesome.) He went downstairs to find his father in the kitchen, waiting for a blitzkrieg machine to brew his coffee. "Ah, good morning Cain." His father greeted. "Pffffft," Cain scoffed "This? Good morning?" his father looked at him in seriousness, "I used to have to this kind of thing too, you know." Cain's father stated. Cain looked down and sighed "I'll make it. I'll make it out alive." His father hugged him "yes, you will." And they were both right, just not in the way they would expect it to happen.

The time had come. Cain was briefed on what he needed to do, who was there, and backup plans, everything. His father personally packed him a backpack that he would trade for the one with money, and if anything went haywire, he would have everything he would need to survive. "So this has everything possibly needed, if anything were to happen" his father looked to him with a sly smile, "anything." He said, _oh son, you were not the only one with fitful sleep, last night._ His father thought as he remembered his son walking into the vault wall opening, in a dream from last night "I… however… did pack something special." He opened the bag and took out a weird device it was a metal cylinder with a speaker on it, a red button on the side of the speaker and a red LED screen to the left of the speaker, wires protruding from all around it, and a cover, protecting some sort of sticky substance. "This, is an interesting piece of explosives, called a Killswitch." Cain looked at his father like he was a lunatic, "when you are ready to use it, you simply push and hold the red button on the side, and say 'activate Killswitch.' Then the screen will say 'ready' on it, then remove the protective film, place it wherever you need it, like a wall or something. Then press and hold the red button again, and say 'set detonation timer' and however much time you want to pass before it explodes." Cain is still, looking at his father like he is slightly insane, but shakes it off and carefully takes the Killswitch and puts it back in the backpack, "thanks dad." Cain stated thankfully, "you are welcome, Cain. And good luck out there!" he exclaimed as his son left the front door and got on the bike he was going to use to get there. Cain's father whispered to himself "something tells me you're is going to need it."

Cain checked the local time on the local chapel tower, as he sped down a sidewalk _10 of noon, perfect._ He had made the trip so many times before, he gained a good sense of when he would arrive at the 35th for the collections. As time went on, he went past the business district and past the suburbs. He knew the 35th was where the houses and apartment complexes, got less and less kept. And more and more neglected. The 35th soon came into sight, along with all of the other, abandoned buildings and complexes. When he arrived he parked his bike and a back alley to the left of the bank and covered it with black trash bags full of packing peanuts. _Not that anybody gets the trash here anyway,_ Cain thought to himself. And nervously headed inside, the place was a bustle, to spite the lack of people he saw on the street. People were walking here and there accessing funds or other stuff like that, he slowly paced around the edge of the right wall. _Something's off…_ Cain looked at his surroundings a little more closely; people were still, at least a few that he noticed, and they were all looking at him even if only for a second and a man in a ratty black tux stood on the balcony of the second floor. Cain looked up at him when he noticed a faint shine on the right side of his tuxedo, the man looked back at Cain, and smiled shifting so that the light could reveal the family emblem; a circle with a mountain on the inside all etched into the fabric with fine silver cables, Cain smiled at the man, and he nodded, "Hermes, this is oracle one, notify Stonetumbler that Cain has entered the thirty-fifth" the man heard a faint voice say from his earpiece "copy that, oracle one, he is notified!" and then he heard a message directed to everyone on the channel "alright everyone this is a high steaks procedure, everything must go as planned. No civilians, all hostiles, keep your eyes peeled, and good luck. Hermes out." The line went static for the time being, and the men continued to monitor the premises. Cain continued to pace around the right wall, as to not let the men lose him. And found the long hallway, to the vault and continued to go down the hallway, slowly.

Several black vehicles pulled up outside the bank which one of the well positioned men spotted, "uuuuh, oracle one, do you copy, this is centurion six." Oracle one responded "I copy, centurion six, what do you see?" the man on ground floor known as centurion six responded "you're not going to like this sir, six plus black vans just pulled into the parking lot across the street, no personnel have exited any of the vehicles." Oracle one responded "son of a… ok." Oracle stepped back from the balcony and clicked a button on his earpiece "all units, this is oracle one. Set comms to open. possible hostiles spotted across the street," a new voice chimed in from an unknown position. "Oracle one this is angle two, your eyes in the sky have intercepted an unknown transmission from your general area, I am patching you in now." Static followed for a second then a few voices faded in "We do not know who our target is, but what we know is this payout is huge, we got one-hundred grand on the line here. So don't screw up unless you want to be killed or docked of pay." Oracle's eyes widened "Damn it." He muttered under his breath "all units ready for combat. I repeat, lock and load, battle is inevitable!"

Isaac made his way down a winding hallway looking for the spot where Sam would be, he saw bright light off to the left in a hallway but paid no attention, as he already knew the layout of the bank. He soon came to a door that was dimly lit by an exit sign, and standing like a shadow under it was a boy in a black hoodie, and grey bleached jeans holding what looked to be a 50lb black backpack obviously holding money. "Sam." Cain stated happily, the figure removed its hood to reveal Sam: he had brown hair, a few patches sticking out where a red headband ran across his forehead "Cain," they both stuck out their right arm and caught their hands. "Good to see you again bro." Cain stated, "Same here." Sam replied. Cain and Sam started to talk briefly about their lives, and how thing were doing. Unbeknownst to them a threat came that would cut their conversation short.

"Oracle one! This is angle two! Do you copy?" oracle brought his hand to his ear "I copy, what is it angle two?" the voice was muffled by the intense sound of a chopper, but he was still able to make out what angle two said "four personnel just exited a black van in the adjacent parking lot! They are thicker than normal civvies, be on guard!" oracle relayed the message and stated "you heard the man watch the three suspects that enter the building in black." The three men in black enter the building and disperse. One of the hidden men spots something, that put up a red flag the moment he saw it, "oracle one, oracle one do you copy?" oracle responds "what is it knight?" knight's voice responds low but with definable anxiety "sir this is not good, I got an emblem," oracle turns the safety off on his pistol and hidden combat rifle while quickly asking "who?" knight responds hesitantly "Blackwater, sir." Oracles eyes widen. "Hermes…" oracle calls quietly. Hermes is quick to lighten the air. "Swarmer support is already available, and reinforcements are ready" oracle sighs in mild relief. "ok Hermes, call in swarmers to the parking lot adjacent to the thirty-fifth bank. Target, is 6 plus black vans." Hermes replied from the other end "you got it. Kay folks! Swarmers inbound to parking lot adjacent to the thirty-fifth bank. Watch your hides!"

"Will we see each other again, friend?" Cain asks disappointedly. "I am sure of it." Sam replies. Sam stops what he doing and immediately covers Cain's mouth and pulls him to the wall. The sound of whispers and footsteps grow closer, slowly. "I have not found the target, or the jackpot yet, Ze. Of course I'll keep searching. Alrighty, out!" the footsteps were closer than ever. Sam was breathing slow and deep, when he uncovered Cain's mouth, and slowly got in position to tackle whatever came around that corner. A figure rounded the corner quickly and was tackled to the ground by Sam who covered the merc's mouth and wrestled his hands behind his back, "do you know this guy?" Sam questions quickly. Cain yanks the earpiece out, then rears his foot back before kicking him as hard as he could, in the groin, rendering the mercenary unconscious. Cain replies "yea rival, clan member." He then grabs Sam's shoulders and tells him quickly "take the money to one of the Stonetumbler, clan members, they have a hard to spot, emblem, it will always be on their right side of whatever clothing they are wearing. Get out of here while you still can, you will find me later." Sam was impressed by his coolness under pressure and asked "And where do you think you are going?" Cain undid the submachine gun from its holster on the out-cold merc's back and looked to Sam with a serious expression, "my destiny. Thank you for being the best of a friend, I hope to see you again, Sam!" Sam smiled before opening the door behind him and escaping the clan war that was about to occur taking the money filled backpack with him.

Cain ran forward towards where the vault was and held his gun forward, he made sure that the safety was off, and the clip loaded, before running. He was about to come to an intersection when he spotted an open door and ran inside. He hid behind the door, and waited. He heard two sets of footsteps approach the intersection, the stopped and the two people started conversing "I don't know man, I radioed mini for his position, but he hasn't responded." The closer person sounded high pitched, and foreign, in accent. The other mercenary, who had a deep husky voice, answered, "I don't even know if we should go find him, dude, he is a lost cause." The two voices laughed than continued to walk down the hall Cain just came from, and talk of their stupid friend, "maybe we should just kill him and keep the money for ourselves," the high pitched foreign voice continued. "Yeah I can't stand his stupid rambling about becoming the queen of some weird were-creatures, using chips." Cain who was tired and mildly disturbed by the two friend's conversation, made sure the two merc's were not looking, when he left the door of the room he was in and bolted into the vault, the vault seemed to have a separate hallway but it went to a dead end wall after 2 feet, "bingo." Cain stated quietly to himself while pulling out a Killswitch, he did as he remembered he was instructed to. First he held the red button down and said "Killswitch, activate." Quietly, when he saw the red LED screen display 'ready…' he proceeded to take the protective film off of the adhesive, and stick it on the wall. He then held down the red button and said "set detonation time, fifteen seconds." He got in position to sprint out of there and let go of the red button. As soon as he let go of the button the red LEDs displayed '15' and the timer counted down. Cain reached the room he had gotten into before and waited _5, 4, 3, 2, 1…_ the moment his mind hit zero, an enormous explosion rang out and the entire building shook, with the shock wave. Cain was deafened for a few seconds, when his hearing came back he saw the 2 remaining mercs facing the large frame that lead into the vault, surprised. Cain took a deep breath and thanks to adrenaline and extensive firearms classes and martial arts classes, was able to fire 1 bullet into each of the arms of the mercs and used the stock of the gun to bash the backs of the knees of the 2 mercs making them fall to the ground. After he did that, Cain ran into the vault to find a gaping hole in the wall, and a steep smooth cement slide dropping into the unknown. Cain looked back to the doorway of the vault and said "I have no other choice." Once again he took a deep breath and closed his eyes before jumping down the polished stone slide taking minimal damage. The slide seemed to curve a little and finally after about 20 seconds the slide slowed to a stop, he got up and observed his surroundings, he seemed to be in an old sewage system, storm drains letting in minimal light. Thankfully the only thing flowing below the grates he stands on is rainwater, Cain continued to observe his surroundings while walking. Anywhere away from where he just came from. He came to a dead end with a drain pipe 24 inches wide, "no." Cain said to himself and looked in. When saw light on the other side of it, "okay maybe." He said to himself agitatedly.

The pipe was only about 10 feet long but it had a grate on the end. "Seriously?" Cain stated frustrated, he got out of the pipe and went back in again feet first this time. When he was at the grate again, he decided to try busting it down. After a few heavy kicks, the large metal gate fell off with a clang and Cain was able to get through. Upon standing up on the other side he saw a plain beige door frame with torches on either side. Having nowhere else to go he entered the door, and saw nothing but the walls of the room and the door that each wall had in its center. However a glint caught his eye, and he saw a golden door on his left, he almost instinctively entered it and he came across a weird stone pedestal. He went farther into the room and saw something on top of the pedestal. He approached it and tried to see what it was: it was a strange piece of technology, it was a metal sphere with a bunch of metal parts sticking out the front and very small electrical wire with a red lens at the front and center. On a plaque attached to the pillar the technology came from, read 'technology 2.0 laser,' and in fine print read below it 'also a camcorder!' Cain cautiously picked up the technology, and inspected it on a large flat portion of the odd, machine read 'gently place spherical end in hollow eye socket and it will do the rest.' Cain looked at the mass of metal in shock and wonder. _It becomes my eye!?_ Realizing what the statement meant to him alone rethought _this… this becomes my eye?_ He thought with a smile. Cain lifted his eye patch to reveal an empty eye socket, then carefully picked up the technology and placed it in his hollow socket. He cringed at first, as nothing had actually been in there… ever. He soon got over the pain, and left the machine to see what it did. (Haha!) After about 10 minutes the hardware was all in place, but it needed 8 hours or so to calibrate. "yay, time to take a nap." Cain said tiredly to himself, before yawning and fell asleep on the ground. But yet again the dreams scheduled for today had other plans than to let him enjoy peaceful rest. he woke up in the room he fell asleep in, and sat up, he tried yawning but he could not open his mouth, he tried to speak but his lips remain shut, _no big deal_ he heard a voice calling out to somebody, anybody at all he decided to follow it, yet it ran away looking in different areas, he kept looking for it but it faded away he ran around all of the rooms he could find, yet found nothing. He was walking around a room when he heard a voice… crying. Cain fervently searched for the voice and this time after running through a bunch of rooms came into one that had a boy in it the boy was enveloped in orange fire and only had beige cargo shorts on. He seemed to be staring at something. Cain turned to where the boy was facing, and his eyes were met with pure white. He glanced at the door, a hand tapped him on the shoulder, it was the strange boy covered in fire, the boy motioned for him to go into the door. Instinctively he agreed, but he stopped just short of entering, turned back, and grabbed the boy and drug him into it as well. The boy must have been happy because there was a smile on his face as he was dragged into the white door frame. Cain's vision faded and he awoke to many strange lights, in his right eye. _Wait a minute…_ he opened his left eye and it was greeted by torchlight, with a smile on his face and anticipation eating him alive. He opened his right eye his newly installed eye saw the same colors as the left eye did and now he could tell his hands were up in the air clenched into fists of joy. He sat up laughing heartily at his new eye, he could see everything in full detail. And he was ecstatic, and ready to take on the world. For now…

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 **So how was it? A love working heavily on backstories like this one, especially with that imagination of mine… next chapter should be out… I… really don't know when… I think that is also going to be a long one too… anyways readers, leave a review, and if ya like it… favorite it! And once again.**

 **Until next time!**


	13. arc 2 pt 3

**Hello one and all of ! I am here with another part of To Hell and Back! Today, we will be introducing another character. Sit back, read, review, and whatnot.**

 **P.S. i am officially colabing with SereneFlames on this series, so a big thanks to SereneFlames!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Binding of Isaac, or any of its characters.**

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Arc 2/Pt 3: The Nomad

Maggy was always a positive girl. She loved being social, and she was always the kindest person in any group of people, allowing her to know many people. She loved to move from place to place and learn about the world, which she did very often. She was 15 and was on her way to a temporary home. The woman behind the wheel was the agent who had helped her to travel to all of these different places. Maggy sat next to her, looking to the driver, eventually asking quietly, "Alessa?"

The driver turned to Maggy. "Yes, Maggy?" Alessa replied, noticing Maggy looked downcast as she continued.

"Do you think I will ever find a true home or at least friends that I will be able to take with me? I am not sure I ever will."

Alessa set her gaze on Maggy with a determined and serious expression. "What happened to the positive, always happy Maggy that I used to know?"

Maggy kept her sight locked with Alessa's before Alessa went on. "Maggy, your very name means 'tower'. So go on with your life in a tower's way and remain strong, unwavering, and adamant. I am sure you will find a friend that you will be able to keep in touch with." Alessa smiled.

Alessa was like the parent Maggy never had, and always wished she could be with. But Alessa had other children to help find homes to. Even though she loved Maggy like her own, and treated her as such, she still had her own job to do. Maggy spent most of the ride thinking and wondering what her new brief dwelling held for her.

"We're here."

Alessa's voice snapped Maggy out of her thoughts and brought her attention to her surroundings. She was astonished as she scanned the environment; the front yard was vast, a variety of large trees poked out of the dirt here and there, and more bushes than you can shake a stick at. The mansion was a mountain in and of itself. Large pillars supported an overhanging roof and a second floor balcony at the same time. A large set of double doors led to the inside of the wondrous place. "C'mon maggy, let's get your things." They both got out of the car and the two grabbed her things and walked up to the door, knocking on it. After a short wait, a man in a white suit came out and smiled when he saw Alessa and Maggy. "Ah, welcome. You must be Maggy," the man stated genially, staring ever so slightly suspiciously at her.

* * *

A boy tampered with a huge speaker as two smaller children and one older one watched intently, sitting around him. "McCoy, do you think this will work?" a 7 year old girl with yellow t-shirt and shorts asked.

"I don't know, Patricia, but I sure do hope it does."

The little girl in yellow turned to a boy beside McCoy. "How 'bout you, Kade? Whatcha' think is gonna happen?"

The boy sitting next to McCoy was dressed in a pink shirt and average jeans and was mildly pudgy. The only thing Kade responded with was a shrug.

McCoy twisted his body to face a computer and called a name. "Yoshina."

A girl with blue eyes, a neon green shirt, and who looked to be older than McCoy stuck her head out with a smile on her face. "You have the clip?" he asked, and she nodded. "Proper settings?" McCoy went on, and she nodded again.

McCoy, knowing what could happen, sighed heavily and asked one last important question. "Do you have 911 on speed dial?"

The girl smile widened and, trying not to giggle, displayed her phone to McCoy which had '911' on the call screen and a finger held over the green button labeled 'call.' McCoy told the kids to stick with Yoshina as she went routinely behind a desk.

After they were settled with her, she made a gesture and they covered their ears. McCoy stood up from the speaker and took on a mischievous grin. "You wanna know why we do these kinds of things?"

The two toddlers beside Yoshina screamed with excitement; "Why?"

"Because we're..." he began and pointed at Yoshina, who clicked the play button on the audio clip.

* * *

Maggy stood outside while waiting for Alessa and the white clothed man to finish the normal paperwork. Once they were done, they exchanged it and Maggy had to say her goodbyes to Alessa. "I'm going to miss you," Maggy murmured shakily while hugging her driver.

"I am going to miss you too, Maggy. I'm going to miss you too. Remember, stay strong." Once they broke away from the hug, Alessa waved and drove off in the car."

Maggy wiped a tear from her eye and turned towards the white clothed man. "Don't worry, you will find plenty of kind souls here, all of which are friendly...well, most of them. The group will give you pointers," the man stated, nodding. "However, I will warn you of something. This place can tend to get a little…crazy, you could say. Maybe even a little dangerous."

Maggy looked at him fearfully, but he simply replied, seemingly just for spite, "Let's just say...you will find this place interesting." The man exhaled and pulled up his sleeve to reveal a watch. "3, 2, 1…" he counted. A deafening sound wave shook the ground and a nearby window bursted, sending a boy into the air screaming and Maggy gasping. She held her hands to her mouth as the screaming got louder yet more distant, and she saw him falling towards a large hedge. When he finally smashed into it, a large thump sounded. A few seconds later a shaky arm rose from the bush and he painfully yelled "No…treble...!" His arm then fell back into the bush and the front door opened revealing a couple of giggling toddlers and an older girl with a smile on her face holding a phone up to her ear. "Very interesting," the white clothed man added casually as if this was common.

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 **Once again, a huge round of applause for SereneFlames for being a great help in making the story amazing!**

 **Well, I hope you all liked this part! Read, review, and tell me what your favorite part of this was. And as always…**

 **Until next time!**


	14. arc 2 pt 3 continuation

**hello one and all of fanfiction! i bring you the continuation of arc 2 pt 3, of To hell and Back! i hope you all will enjoy!**

 **now i know that this chapter will look a little... off. but Serene is (hopefully) briefly without internet. so the story may seem a little choppy.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own any characters, or their respective games.**

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Arc 2/pt3 continuation

"So sir, what is your name?" Maggy asked the man in the white clothing. "My name does not matter right now, and you might find out soon enough." He said cracking the faintest smile, and continued "but if you must have a name for me, call me quartermaster." Maggy nodded in understanding, "yes sir," the quartermaster raised his right arm and pointed it toward the door in kindness, before speaking "go on in! The group is going to want to meet you!" Maggy replied with a simple "ok" and opened the door.

The inside was beautiful: A pretty red carpet led into the main part of the mansion, to her left was a door that read 'cafeteria' to her right was a room that read 'storage.' The cafeteria room doors were open. She stuck her head in to see what was going on, if anything was: The cafeteria was one long table, with various decor and usual items, bowls of real fruit, hardly touched. Salt and pepper grinders, other than that, a large plain white table cloth, past the table was the kitchen, visible through a large window. a lone figure in a pink dress was washing dishes. Wanting to see the rest of the mansion, she walked past the doorway.

She came to the intersection in the center, what was ahead looked to be an entertainment center the size of a theater, the ceiling opening up to the second floor where a skylight brought sunlight into the large living room. To her left and right were long hallways leading to staircases that went up then split in two directions.

-In a different area-

A 17 year old boy sits with his legs crossed a mild blue mist surrounding his being. He wears blue colored shorts and blue undershirt, over it he had a cream colored tank top. The blue mist around him seemed to be pushed away like an explosion blew it away, and the mist faded into thin air. His eyes snapped open to reveal crimson irises. "hmm." The boy hummed and opened the door to the hallway. He stepped out, and closed his eyes, a faint yellow aura surrounding his head lifting his blue and black hair, his eyes snapped open and turned to face the opposite direction and creating a blast of wind around him, shot off, Sprinting to someone's room. He skid on his bare feet when he came to the person's room and knocked on the door. It opened to reveal a man in overalls with a red shirt, he spoke in a slightly foreign tone "What is it Luke?" The boy looked at the man and said while showing a light smile "newcomer." The man's eyes went wide "no kidding huh?" he said in surprise, the boy simply replied "central intersection." The man nodded and stated "thanks Luke!" before running off down the hallway.

After the man in overalls disappeared from sight, Luke turned to face a shadow, oddly darker than usual. "Seriously?" Luke deadpanned at the dark shadow, the darkness lightened revealing another boy: he was about a year younger than Luke, he wore a black zip up hoodie and black pants with a fiery neon green stripe down the middle of the outside of the legs, irises and hair of the same color greeted Luke's eyes "Dude, you may not get another opportunity like this for years!" Luke smiled mischievously before saying playfully "Fine. But at least let me get the video footage of you setting the seat of his pants on fire!" the green haired boy smiled like a maniac and replied "you got it bro!" Before leaping into the shadows, seemingly dissapearing from existence.

Meanwhile back to Maggy

Maggy looked to the left staircase when she heard a set of footsteps and panting, a man in overalls wearing a red shirt ran down the stairs and approached her. "You must be a newcomer" he stated between pants, then stood himself up before continuing "I am mark. How many of the others have you met?" Maggy remembered "I only met the quartermaster, but I saw a group leave after a kid was blasted from a window" recognizing the level of mischief to be one and only one person, he deadpanned and stated "so I guess you have seen mc. Coy? The kid flying out of the window." Maggy laughed at his statement before mark continued "yeah, he is the stupid one, he does all sorts of crazy things. Anyway I'll show you round the place and show you your room." he gestured for her to come along.

After about an hour the tour was finished and she had seen everything. From the arcade to the theater and even managed to see a few new faces. Now she was back in the area where she started, the main intersection, otherwise referred to as "the hub." The man turned to Maggy and stated "well that is it, you are now free to explore the mansion dinner will be at 6 o clock," Luke sat against a wall unnoticed by either Maggy, or mark, he had a blue gaming device in his hands and had the video app ready. Maggy saw him sitting there, when he put two fingers to his left temple and closed his eyes. Maggy noticed a door off to her right, which was behind mark opened slowly. The boy with green hair and irises, held a ball of green fire and slowly advanced towards mark, _this ought to be interesting._ Maggy thought as mark continued "so if you have any other questions ask me or the quartermaster, we are almost always available to answer them." The boy was now right behind mark, and when mark finished his statement, the boy slammed the fireball into his back, and ran off laughing maniacally, so everyone could hear. Maggy just stood there, smiling. Mark who looked furious, stated as kindly as he could "if you will excuse me, I have an annoying pest, to get rid of." Before bolting off in the direction that the boy came from, which was the hallway mark came in from. Even after he reached the stairs, marks enraged yell could be heard, "REQUIEM! GET YOUR DAMN ASS OVER HERE!" Luke who was trying to contain his laughter pressed the 'stop recording.' Button before proceeding to fall to the floor and laugh until his sides hurt. Once he regained his composure he stood up and went over to Maggy, "I am Luke by the way." He put his hand forward, and Maggy shook it. "Maggy." She stated. Luke continued while gesturing towards the hallway that mark and the other boy disappeared into, "that was Requiem, and you have met mark." In the distance laughing and enraged yelling could be heard as mark chased requiem, across the 2nd floor open hallway at the back of the living room. "I'll see you around, but right now I have to get this on the big screen!" Luke stated as he ran off, snickering evilly. Maggy was only shown where her room was, not what was inside. So she retrieved her bags and headed up to her room on the second floor. Curious to see what was on the inside.

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 **the next part should be out soon, within a few days or so. once again thank you all for reading! Read, Review, the usual.**

 **Until next time!**


	15. arc 2 pt 3 continuation 2

**Hello one and all of fanfiction, I bring you the continuation of To Hell and Back. Don't ask, I am disorganized. Anyway hope you guys like the new part. PLEASE! Review! Part of my fuel to keep going is your support and feedback, and like it isn't bad enough that I was starting to lose motivation after Cain's intro. So please, review. I cannot get better as a writer if I don't see what I am doing right, and what I am doing wrong. Anyway.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own binding of Isaac, or any of its characters.**

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Maggy approached the door to her new room, and opened the door slowly, taking in the details the room, after a moment she realized was actually really small: there was enough room for two beds to the left and right of the door, the frames of the beds parallel to the frame of the door. What she saw next filled her with awe. The wall in front of her held a large flat screen tv. Below it was a glass case with every type of console imaginable and a small touchscreen. She observed it closer, it had a search bar. Running up to the touchscreen. Excitedly, she typed in the name of her favorite artist into the search bar and the one result she was looking for came up, she smiled widely knowing she would be able to listen to her favorite artist's music nonstop "yes!" she screamed to no-one in particular, "24 hours of synthesized HEAVEN!"

for the next half hour or so, she gawked at all of the wonderful tech she had at her disposal, until a distant young voice sounded from nowhere, and everywhere "hey Patricia, is this thing on." After a second a frustrated grunt was heard followed by "gimmie that, idiot…" a young female voice sounded. The young voice cleared her throat politely before yelling "FOOOOOOOOD!" as loud as she possibly could in a barbaric tone, the white noise from the speaker system cut with a click, and as soon as the mansion-wide intercom went blank, the entire floor started to shake as all of the building's occupants stampeded towards the cafeteria. Maggy went to open the door slowly, and she saw the last few people rushing by. "Wow… food must be good here." She stated quietly as she left her room, and headed over to the cafeteria, when she reached the open doors of the cafeteria she was astonished the place was louder than a stadium, and bits and pieces of food were flying everywhere. Slowly she entered, carefully watching the long table to make sure no food would fly toward her. Once she made her way over to the opening in the wall that leads into the kitchen, she was approached by the woman in the pink dress she had seen earlier "hello you must be the newcomer, what is your name?" the woman had asked, Maggy replied politely "my name is Maggy, and what is yours?" the woman was quick to respond "April. There is a seat for you at the end of the table," Maggy nodded politely and went over to her seat at the end of the long table thankfully away from all of the flying food, when she sat down there was a plate full of spaghetti, with a cutlet of chicken on top and marinara everywhere.

Luke sat in the mix of people, food flying over his head in some cases, requiem sat next to him. Eating his plate of spaghetti, when Luke spoke "Maggy looks awfully lonely over there, I'm going to send someone over there," requiem nodded, and kept eating. Luke looked around for someone who was open, and friendly. Maybe someone else who had felt like this when they first started. He set his eyes on a girl, who had gone through the exact same thing, someone who had been through the exact same thing Maggy had. "perfect." Luke whispered to himself. He closed his eyes and concentrated, the girl he was staring at looked around in confusion, as if she heard something, _Grace, Grace, can you hear me._ Luke thought, the girl looked at him, knowing the voice that entered her head. The two had learned to talk like this long ago when they shared information. _Luke! What is it?_ Grace inquired. Luke stared at Maggy while keeping the mental channel open, and sent his thoughts over to her mind, after all of his thoughts were transferred he thought the words, _sound familiar?_ Grace looked to Maggy and nodded _I understand._ The words formed in her mind, then she got up from her seat.

Maggy had finished her dinner and was about to get up and leave, when she saw someone get up from their seat and walk over, this was someone she had not seen yet: she had a cream colored shirt, and just like Luke, had the same blue undershirt and shorts, but her hair was deep blue, and her eyes were pink and she had a long pink scarf that wrapped around her neck and hung off the back of her left shoulder, she took a seat near but not next to Maggy and introduced herself gently "hello." Maggy looked on slightly nervous, Grace continued, "I just came over to talk, that is all. You looked alone here by yourself." Luke walked over and sat down next to grace finishing her sentence "so we thought we would come over." Maggy felt inclined to make the first question "so… what exactly is this place?" Grace and Luke looked at each other for a minute, affirming they give her the 'mask' Luke started with "this is a place where gifted people go," Maggy tilted her head, "I get it," Luke continued "but, just for a second think of something that makes you wonder." Maggy thought about a mystery in her favorite video game, Luke puffed up his cheeks then let it out as softly, as he could, breaking into laughter, he read he mind and stated "seriously? You think he says 'pizza' every time he does that? Really?!" he stated before laughing, grace defended Maggy "hey! I thought the same thing, When I played as him." A buff man with a red headband and spiky blue hair commented from down the table "I didn't even know what pizza was before I came here, I DO NOT SAY PIZZA!" Maggy just stared wide-eyed at Luke as he read her mind, "Go ahead ask me what is special about us." Maggy thought about the group, she saw earlier before quizzing hesitantly "mc. Coy?" Luke deadpanned, as this was the one question he did not want to answer, "he is a pyro, he loves anything that even looks like an explosion, he has the ability to amplify and tinker with their power. He can throw a single grenade into a building, and make it crash to the ground." Maggy let the words sink in a little, before responding "wow." She continued to ask a few questions, until she felt something, a tinge of sadness and depression, she looked around. "I feel it too," Luke stated in a serious tone, Maggy felt a twinge and turned in the direction it came from, she saw nothing, but a bunch of people eating but as she looked closer, she saw the black hood, and immediately knew who it was, she stated the question not knowing if she wanted the answer, "what about… him?" she pointed to requiem, "requiem…" Luke stated trying to refresh his memory "we… don't know much about him, but we do know… he, is one of the most powerful beings in this mansion, even the way he even came here was kind of a mystery." He paused "here I'll show you." He said then closed his eyes,

 _It was stormy, a hurricane blew through the day before and thunderstorms were still ravaging the area,_ Luke, lay in his bed watching the storm, _thunder rumbled every now and then and a small flash here and there, but the odd thing was, nothing was happening around the mansion very mild breeze and not a single drop of water_. He got out of bed and sat by the windowsill, watching the distant storms. _Then, something caught my eye._ He saw a glint and looked to the clouds. About a mile away from the mansion the clouds started to glow ever so slightly, in a vibrant green. The green glow grew stronger with each passing minute, and then more details caught his eye small green orbs and small bolts of electricity arced through the clouds toward the green glow, increasing its intensity. The clouds at the center of the glow started spinning and Luke watched in awe, _I had never seen such odd events before so I observed very closely, and I am glad I did._ The clouds split high in the sky creating an opening, all of the arcing electricity and green orbs stopped, and the glow was now making a meadow clearly visible in the dead of night. Then a mild thunder brought Luke's attention to the opening, the glow was getting brighter with each passing second, until finally a green ring of energy erupted from the clouds illuminating the world as if it were day. _I and anybody else who was watching might've thought this was the end of our world._ An enormous green fireball plummeted towards the ground, trailed by thick bolts of green lightning. The moment it hit the ground, the ground shook, and a shock wave rattled the mansion waking all of its occupants, hundreds upon hundreds of shards of green energy flew in all different directions, although nothing else in the meadow or anywhere was actually catching on fire, accept for the large crater the explosion created. _Since I had not been killed by the shockwave, curiosity decided I would have a look._ Luke opened the second story window and jumped into a tree at the edge of the forest, he then slowly made his way down the tree. Once he reached the ground, he sprinted towards the meadow, wondering what awaited him. _It was an unsettling environment, it was even creepier because thoughts were appearing in my head out of nowhere, questions like "where am I?" and "who am I?" I tried to push the thoughts from my and continued._ Luke then came to the meadow, he walked through the meadow towards the flaming crater, the thoughts had ceased to surge through his head, and he breathed a sigh of relief but remained cautious. He was now only a few feet from the crater when he realized the fire gave off no heat, he reluctantly put a finger into the fire expecting to be burnt, but was surprised that it gave off nothing, just light. He was about to leave when he saw movement at the bottom, a small figure seemed to be sleeping in the crater. _How he survived is beyond me. The impact would have killed any normal person instantly, then again he is not normal. But I knew one thing, the kind hearted me would not allow anybody to remain injured, he did have a few cuts and bruises, and surely someone or something would come around sooner or later._ Luke picked up the body as gently as he could and rushed back to the mansion.

The transferred thoughts ended and Maggy was able to see everything again. She was in awe of what she just saw, and it had shown on her face, "he had no major injuries so he stayed here to recover, ever since then we have become friends." Luke sighed remembering all of the good times he had in the last months, suddenly the downcast aura emitted from requiem again, Maggy grimaces at the sadness she was feeling. She was a lot of things. She was shy at times, she was a good prankster, and she was the most kindhearted person anyone could ask for, so her personality told her she could not let him be this sad. She got up and walked over to requiem, and sat down next to him, she whispered his name "requiem?" he looked up slowly and turned to her with a faint smile, "oh, hi Maggy, what's up?" she crossed her arms and wittily replied "what's up? More like who's down." Requiem chuckled, "ok you got me there." Maggy continued on a more serious note, "so what's wrong?" requiem looked mildly downcast, "it's not much really." And stated more quietly "at least it is nothing you would understand." Maggy was quick to respond "what wouldn't I understand?" Requiem looked even more depressed trying to answer these questions. "I miss my family, I am not from here and I don't know how to get back," Maggy brought something out of her pocket, her most prized possession, a small heart plushy that smelled like candy and was softer that a cloud "here hold this," she stated quietly, requiem held out his hand, "I… remember, this." He stated wistfully with a smile of sadness on his face, once he took the plushy in his hand his depression was immediately lifted, and he decided to relieve everyone's burdens, too. He channeled what happy memories he could through his arms in the form of mild green wisps. when the wisps made contact with the plush, a light wave of pink wind filled the room full of warm summer air and the smell of lilac, requiem breathed in deeply and then said "thank you." He gave the plushy back, Maggy needed to reinforce the positive feelings more "whatever you are looking for, I am sure you will find it within yourself." Maggy stated kindly and pat him on the back before leaving. "Find it within yourself…" requiem repeated, and went off to think.

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 **Now I know this is a boring chapter, but I am leading it into where Maggy lands in the dungeon. As I said before I need feedback from you guys, do you want me to continue, anything like that, questions about the story, tell me. Anyway,**

 **Until next time!**


	16. arc 2 pt 3 conclusion

**Hello all of fanfiction! I am here with another part of To Hell and Back! Today the final part of Maggy's intro will be finished. We will move on to the next one, in next chapter. But for now… read, enjoy and review.**

 **Arc 2 pt 3 final**

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It was later on in the night, and Maggy was in her room. She was pondering the day's events, remembering all of the chaos that happened, when she was struck by the evil that struck at the same time, every first night. a cycle of endless depression that would end seemingly only when her life did. _Family…_ she thought wistfully, _I have never had a true family…_ a grimace spread over her, planting a frown on her face, _never had a brother, a safe guard against the world's hatred for me…_ the sad expression growing on her once happy face. _Never had a sister, the one person who would understand me more than anyone, and be there through the worst of it with me…_ her sadness grows, _Never had a father, the bearer of support and kindness._ Millions of the "why?" questions flooding her head when the final seal entered her mind, intruding on her happiness and tearing her normal kind calm demeanor to shreds. _…never had a mother…_ her eyes snapped open, filled with the emotion but one person has seen in her eyes, rage. Burning the last fragments of happiness she had like dry twigs, she let the last intruder course through her head. _The one person who, gives endless wisdom. The one person who's love for you is behind only god's. The one person… who would never. Give. You. Up._ Maggy was about to lash out against the nearest non-human object, trying to tear it into shreds smaller than her torn heart. But what remained of her innocence prevented her from doing so, and instead, she lay on hey bed and began to cry, for hours.

In a different part of the mansion

Luke lay in his bed, he looked to his alarm clock with eyes locked in deep concentration, _11:35_ he concentrated some more, on a distant aura of sadness that began 2 hours ago. It was not intense, but it pierced through every wall and door. It was nowhere and everywhere, at the same time. This persisted until the distant sad aura, grew in power. Luke was able to read fuzzy words, only catching _never_ and _family,_ the depression seeping through the walls more and more. He soon picked up more words, coming in more clearly due to the power of the emotions leaking in through the ceiling. _Never had brother…_ Something inside Luke told him the words were familiar, and the sadness began to melt slowly into rage. _Never had a father,_ he managed to pick up along with some fuzzy words. Finally the depression melting entirely into rage, made the words crystal clear _…never had a mother…_ it clicked, this was Maggy. _The one person who, gives endless wisdom. The one person who's love for you is behind only god's. The one person… who would never. Give. You. Up._ Luke grimaced, feeling the pure rage burning through the walls, then a tidal wave of sadness washed over him, "I have to help." He said in second nature, and opened the door.

The hallway was cold, but only to Luke: it was filled with the residual cold depression and poisonous sadness. He walked slowly over to Maggy's door when he heard soft weeping and knocked quietly on the door "Maggy?" he questioned in a whisper. Maggy wiped her eyes, and went over to the door. When she opened it she saw Luke standing before her, "what's wrong?" he asked with evident concern in his voice. She looked downcast at him before answering "I'm just a little sad, that's all." Luke knew better, and responded with the same level of concern and a hint of seriousness "Maggy, I could feel your rage from the other end of the mansion, what's wrong?" she glared at him mildly frustrated that he read her thoughts, and responded "It's nothing you would understand." She then added quietly while turning to reenter her room, "not that you would know what it is like not having parents." The words hit Luke in a sacred area, he responded with a depressed tone "you know, everyone here has a backstory. Not all of them are happy." Luke remembered back to his younger childhood, then cringed, not wanting to relive that year.

A brief flash lit up the room, Maggy looked outside. The moon was blocked out by storm clouds, and more lightning flashed in the distance. Distant thunder rumbled, signaling the arriving storm. Luke lifted his head, and he looked around with a serious expression, "what now?" Maggy asked confused, anything to relieve the mood. Luke shifted towards the door before speaking "clairvoyance." Maggy didn't understand what he meant, but a few seconds later she felt it too: a distant sense of somewhere she needed to go, it was a guide. It held a sense of urgency. "Can't be good, follow me." Luke stated nervously before sprinting down the hallway towards a staircase that lead to a glass door, "here," he stated quickly and scaled the stairs in three leaps, then waited for Maggy. When she got to the top, Luke opened the door and he gestured for her to come out.

They were on the rooftop of the mansion. It had a nice view of the valley and everything around it. A lone figure stood at the edge of the roof, "requiem!" Luke stated urgently "what happened? Is anything wrong?" requiem continued to stare into the storm, after a while he noticed the storm clouds were moving a bit quicker than any storm he had ever seen. Lightning flashed brighter, to anyone other than requiem they would have seen nothing, but what requiem saw pierced his heart with fear, and he emit an aura of doom, sending chills up both of the bystander's spines. With fear evident in his voice, he stated quickly "call the quartermaster." Luke nodded and put his fingers to his temples and concentrated, he then clenched his eyes shut and willed a blue shockwave to surge through the walls of the mansion. Seconds later a pillar of white light appeared rising a few feet into the air, then it flashed and disappeared, revealing the quartermaster. "What is it requiem?" he stated calmly. "A being has chased me to the ends of my homeworld, seeking to kill me. It has found me, and will do whatever it takes to destroy me, including kill everyone in the area." He then pointed to the storm clouds the size only seen in legend. Requiem turned to the quartermaster, and stated as desperately as he could "you need to evacuate every living being in this house and take what is valuable with you. Because all that will remain is a smoldering crater!" the quartermaster had experience with disaster so he knew when to listen. He nodded and called Luke over, and they discussed the matter in further detail. Requiem called Maggy over while Luke and the quartermaster were conversing, to discuss something. "Maggy, I cannot go into detail, you must remember what makes you strong, and remain strong for all of us, and you will make it through this. You will find all that you desire, your family is depending on you, we have never lost a single member, and we don't plan to." Maggy cut in and spoke "what family do I have, my mother abandoned me at birth, and I was put into the system! Just like all of the other unfortunate children!" requiem looked her in the eye, and smiled before responding "us. It is a ludicrous statement but in time you will understand this is true." A breeze went through Maggy hair and she looked to the storm, which was alarmingly close, lightning cut through the sky more and more brilliantly with each passing second. "Maggy, you must remain like your namesake, you must remain unwavering, unmoving, and adamant." She recognized the memory he just quoted, and turned to him in awe, "the name is requiem for a reason." He turned towards the storm once again.

A million questions flew through her mind running rampant like a horde of locust. She was snapped out of her thoughts, when Luke called to Maggy, "we are all set, we gotta go!" she rushed with Luke towards the staircase the wind was picking up. "meet at the main intersection!" she heard him yell, she rushed to her room to grab only what was necessary. By the time she got to her room the wind was battering the mansion, debris was flying through the air, she grabbed what she needed put it in a bag and ran. Realization hit her, she had forgotten the plush, her most valuable possession. She ran back into her room and quickly spotted it on her bed, and she picked it up and held it in her right hand as she ran. She came down the stairs to see a small group of people standing, a brilliant light was surrounding them and they were seconds from teleporting to a safe place. Even though she was running, Luke who was among the group reached out his hand and called desperately "Maggy! Take my hand!" Luke saw her getting closer but not close enough. Finally he lunged towards Maggy in hopes of taking her with him. Too late, the white light flashed blue and each of the people inside the teleporter started to phase out of existence. Maggy reached towards Luke hand only inches away, when the entirety of his being disappeared. For just a lone moment she stood there, a burning wound of betrayal and depression paralyzing her as she stare at the teleporter. A powerful voice snapped her out of her trance "GO!" it screamed, and the doorway to the supply room, burned open. The clairvoyance took over. She ran into the expansive supply room following a trail of green fire to a trapdoor that lead into the unknown. She stared at it for a moment, in hesitation. The creak of the mansion bending from the wind brought her back to reality, and she sighed knowing there was no other choice, and climbed down a ladder that lead to a winding cavern that lead downward, she didn't need to be told twice. She sprinted down the winding cavern and as she was running a rumble under her feet caused her to look back. Immediately, she wished she hadn't: stones were flying around the corner she just turned and the rumbling was getting louder, she came to a long hallway with faint torchlight ahead, she sprinted faster than she had ever sprinted before, and like a blur, bolted towards the door. with each step she took doom grew closer and closer until she reached the doorway and jumped in, the avalanche of rock just feet behind her. The doors shut. but it did not stop the rockslide; the door was busted down and rocks came rolling in, all of them stopping at her feet.

Maggy lay on the ground, exhausted. There was a doorway in front of her, her mind was keeping her paralyzed with all of the horrible details flowing like water. She was contemplating whether she should continue, or lay there; Doomed to slowly starve. her indecision was eating her from the inside out, and all she could do is weep, her circumstances convincing her of her doom, she would lay there and cry until all of her energy faded away, her life would leave this world, unnoticed to anyone but herself. wouldn't it?

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 **Poor Maggy, it seems she has been met with a terrible fate, or has she... you will find out later ;D but for now thank you all for reading! please review when you can, and PM me if you have any questions, it helps! next chapter we will be introducing the final protagonist.**

 **Until next time!**


	17. arc 2 pt 4

**hello! once again readers, to To Hell and Back! today we unveil the final main protagonist. i hope you enjoy! read, review, and if you like they story maybe even favorite it! it means a lot to me to know that you guys like the story.**

 **Disclaimer: i do not own binding of Isaac, or any of its characters.**

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arc 2 pt 4 the outcast.

Eve was a girl who kept to herself and refused the help of others, that she was.

Eve was born into a military family. when she was young her father thought about leaving her to die in the wilderness, but her mother refused to let eve go, so reluctantly her father kept her. their family was a group of people who had almost supernatural strength. her kinder brothers and sisters, which were few, used their strength to help people in need, one was a volunteer firefighter, another was a construction worker, and so on. however, most of her family did not like having her because she was weak compared to the rest of the family, a runt.

as she grew up, she learned tricks on how to live mildly normally: avoiding her family's ridicule, making it seem like you envy them. how to get as much food as she wanted, which was not very much, get mom to reserve some. her father, her father. she had not taken the time to avoid him, because he was the one of the only two people who truly wanted to see her succeed, without hurting her. though they could not admit it. if they did they would be hounded out of the family for admitting weakness which as the clan master had said "is weakness in and of itself."

tonight, that thought pursued her relentlessly, the clan master, Ares. would come to judge her on her 16th birthday, to see if she is worthy of being an ares clan member, in only 2 days. she had never gotten physically strong, which worried her slightly. her father had told her what had happened to a soon to be member who did not pass the test, the image it scarred into her mind had not left since her father told her, years ago. she decided to wander outdoors to see if the air would clear her head, she came to a meadow, the area where the ares clan trained, it was midnight so the area was abandoned. the nearly full moon shone brightly above the sky lighting paths and equipment. she remained quiet as could be and walked about the field until she came to the face of the forest, she looked at the ominous dark woods before slowly entering it.

she wandered about the woods, listening to the sounds of the night: the owls hooting in the distance, crickets chirping, tree frogs singing, the calm wind weaving and winding through the trees, causing the leaves to rustle like ocean waves. Eve smiled lightly and continued meandering through the forest. she was always calmed by the evening forest, mind cleared and soothed by the darkness, ears pleased by the song of the midnight community, a chorus to her senses. her thoughts were interrupted when her eyes had picked up an unusual sight for the forest, firelight; very faint and flickering, through a thick fog. her instinct had told her to turn back. For a second she considered the thought, but her training and careful consideration told her she could continue.

as she approached the unusual light: the light revealed pairs of tall metal lampposts running parallel to a narrow road of worn cobble and grey brick, coaxing eve into the unknown ahead. she traversed it past a large open gate, with spiked iron fence stretching its arms into the forest. she stopped and gazed sadly at her surroundings; polished stones of various sizes, shapes and colors, protrude from the misty floor, each marking a past person, she found herself in the hidden family graveyard. the stones seemed to grow in size as eve proceeded further into the memorial place, noticing larger stones spread farther and farther apart, she continued. finally after passing what she assumed to be powerful family members' graves, she came to a building, one built simply; with four marble pillars holding a flat roof, the roof sheltered a sarcophagus, built into the stone that had a sliding top. eve advances slowly. the shine of a meal plaque caught her eye, she read the text in her mind

 _suffering shall make you strong, so to those who suffer does strength really belong... what does it mean?_

eve pondered in her head when a crow landed on the top of the grave and let out a loud caw, which made eve jump a few feet into the air. when she turned to face the source of the obnoxious noise, the crow cawed again. eve glared at the bird with glowing red eyes. and enraged, picked up a rock and threw it at the crow. the bird fell to the face of the coffin with a pained caw, before ceasing to move. eve looked at her hands, which were shaking and thought _What have i done?_ her attention was brought back to reality when the red glow manifested around the bird, causing it to float in the air. eve backed away scared, was the bird going to kill her? the crow was tilted so that its feet would hit the ground if it fell, and the red aura faded into thin air. for a second the bird floated, then fell on its feet, and opened its eyes and cawed almost happily. it hopped towards the edge of the sarcophagus and attempted to fly towards eve, it flew a few feet into the air and then stuttered as it felt the pain that eve inflicted on the broken wing, and fell to the ground. eve looked regretfully at the grounded crow who pleaded for help in desperate wing flaps and pained calls. eve looked and seemed like a cold hearted person who could care less, but on the inside, she was really shy, and was never good at talking to anyone outside her family. but her mind could not bear to see suffering, and she always kept her good deeds well hidden, using her cunning. she walked cautiously towards the bird flinching lightly at any sudden movements it made. she put her finger forward and expected to be pecked, or cawed at anger. instead she was met with a smooth beak, her finger gently grazing the side of the birds face. the bird raised its head slowly, expecting to be crushed by the angry creature, yet was surprised to find it gently caring for it. the bird weakly jumped onto eve's arm which startled her but she kept stroking the birds soft feathers eventually eve smiled lightly and walked towards the exit of the graveyard when a shroud of thick mist surrounding a headstone caught her eye, she approached it slowly, careful not to hurt her new passenger any more. she waved the mist away and looked at the headstone, the stone was void of any text and read a date that was at least a hundred years from then. confused by the happenings of the night's venture, eve went home. her new pet in her arms, at least hoping she could get some sleep.

after all... the next day is her judgement

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 **YAY! im back with a new chapter! feels good to get back in the swing of things.**

 **so how was this chapter? i think i did ok on this one, tell me what you guys think. review, fav if you like.**

 **Until Next Time!**


	18. arc 2 pt 4 continuation

**welcome back one and all to another part of to hell and back! i wont keep you waiting, read enjoy review and whatnot.**

 **Disclaimer: i do not own binding of Isaac, or any of its characters.**

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arc 2 pt 4 continuation

eve lay in her bed, though she was happy to have a new companion, she was plagued by the thoughts that attacked her in the first place. once again her mind was paralyzed by the thought of what the next day brought. for hours, all that she could do was lay there, every minute passing like a year, the crow she had tamed, injuring it in the process, was resting on her lap. its body slowly rising and falling. eve smiled lightly while stroking his head before returning to her sad and downcast mood. after a while, her eyelids grew heavy and she could no longer fight sleep.

eve slowly opened her eyes, she was surrounded by mist. the grey cobble and stone bricks setting rather uncomfortably on her back, so she slowly rose to her feet. as she did so she became very light-headed. After the world stopped spinning, she naturally looked around to see where she was, she was in the graveyard she had found earlier, she noticed everything was lit with an unnatural purple glow, cascading from the ghostly black and purple fire the lampposts were emitting, there were no tombstones here, at least as far as she could see. she looked forward, and paced forward at a leisurely rate taking in the details of what she knew deep in the back of her mind was a dream. she came to the area where the pavilion housed the large coffin, and sure enough it stood tall among the empty yard but it was the same as it was before, just a large sarcophagus, _something's missing_. eve thought to her self as she stared at the building. she decided that she would turn back to see if she had missed anything when she came to the entrance she found the gates were opened and the path grew on a few more feet before fading from existence, haze surrounds something just off the path, she approaches it cautiously. she instinctively waves at the obscuring mist as if to disperse it and is successful. but she finds a tombstone, a small block of stone about two feet tall. haze still surrounds the middle of it, before eve can try to disperse the mist, the thick haze is pushed away by an unknown force and now reveals blood red text, eve read it in horror, _here lies..._ a large gap between that line and a paragraph, raises eve's suspicion but she reads the next paragraph _a girl who suffered at the hand of fate, born into a family which she could not belong. for in her time of judgement she failed her test, and her family brutally killed her, as punishment._ eve slowly stepped back, the description, parallel to how her's could be. The ground beneath her began to shake and a red glow etched three large letters into the gap that read 'EVE.' she backed away quickly and ran the other way looking behind her only once to see that the ground was falling into a black void, she sprinted towards the only other thing in the graveyard, the pavilion. as she approached the pavilion, she quickly noted that light was seeping through the cracks, a weird and crazy idea came into her head, she came to the head of the sarcophagus and pushed heavily on the lid, which slid off with ease, revealing a trapdoor, not a corpse not even musty air, just a trapdoor. hearing the crumbling of dirt falling she pried open the trapdoor, which shot blinding amounts of light into her eyes, but it did not detour her, she jumped in and her vision was filled with white, before falling unconscious.

eve woke up the next day in her bed like normal with no memory of the dream that occurred. and so she went on with her day as she normally did, all the while trying to hide her new pet. her worries of tomorrow growing like wildfire, she remained in the confines of her room for most of the day. night came and she went to sleep or at least tried to, for hours still she could not get to sleep. all of the thoughts plagued her still, and it was chipping away at her sanity. she felt her eyes become watery, she knew that weeping in general was considered weakness and highly disliked among her relatives, but she could hold back the tears no longer, she was tired of their constant ridicule and disowning. she softly let the tears flow for hours. until eventually fell asleep.

eve felt awake, mostly. she dare not open her eyes though, she did not want to be reminded of her "Family," and thoughts of her fate. yet she knew eventually she would have to open her eyes. she sat up slowly in a slouched position and opened her eyes halfway: she was against a wall, in a room of grey stone brick. she looked around and knew that this was a nightmare, headless black skinned bodies surrounded her on all sides. they started slowly pacing towards her inch by inch, making the nightmare that much more agonizing. she half-heartedly crawled over to the wall, and sat in fetal, waiting for the monsters to tear her apart with their unnaturally sharp and long claws, when she notices the doorway behind the monsters, lies a faint orange light growing brighter each second. she continues to stare at the doorway, the orange light looking mildly hopeful. eve hears a voice distant and low "hello? is anybody there?" she wanted to scream out that she was there but her mouth was sealed shut. the demonic creatures are only ten feet away from her and the orange light grows brighter. using every last ounce of her will power she is able to utter one word "help..." the orange light grows significantly brighter as it approaches "Hello?" the voice speaks, sounding closer. "Help me..." she mutters a little louder and the orange glow continues to grow, behind the monsters which are only 5 feet away, she is able to make out a figure bathed in orange light which she saw to be fire, running towards her, one of the monsters growls and prepares to strike the human bathed in fire reached the doorway and leaps high into the air, as the monster brings its arm down the human screams "NOOOOOO!" the monster touches eve and her vision grows red then black.

eve shot upright in her bed, her face white, her hand at her throat breathing deeply and quickly, the sun just peaking over the horizon. _this is it,_ eve thinks as she gets up out of bed, _this will be the day i die._

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 **oh will it now, eve? will it?**

 **anyway i hope you guys enjoyed this part, if you didn't... i don't blame ya! 'Cause most of this chapter was written on a 2 'o clock low XD**

 **if you did (somehow) enjoy this chapter... review, and favorite, and follow for more.**

 **Until next time...**


	19. arc 2 pt 4 final

**Hello one and all of fanfiction! (after a bit of a break,) I bring you another part of To Hell and Back! This should be the final chapter about introductions, should be…**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own binding of Isaac, or any of its characters.**

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Arc 2 pt 4 final

Eve slowly made her way down to the kitchen which was more like a cafeteria, and lazily grabbed an apple buttered toast and scrambled eggs. She was sure that she would die today, so she tried to taste what could be her last meal, _bland_ … though she could taste the food and smell it, her senses were dulled by her mind, running on overdrive. _was I ever really worth the trouble to them,_ she thought sadly as she looked to her mother in the kitchen, _is it worth what's left of my pride and life to run? I could never show my face here again without them trying to kill me._ The thoughts were rushing through her mind faster than a river, crushing her demeanor like a waterfall. She looked to the clock, _11… only one hour, one hour to think._ She decided she would occupy herself while going to the arena, the tester of strength. As she walked towards her doom, her life flashed before her eyes.

 _I wasn't worth the trouble, he should have just killed me when he had the chance._ An image of her father, came to her eyes. _But why? Why did you keep me?_ "Because we saw potential," eve was snapped out of her thoughts, and she whipped her head to see who had the gumption to follow her, she was surprised to see a serious, but sad look on her father's face. "And we still do!" he finished with an uplifting tone.

Eve's father walked alongside her, and told her about what could happen if she wasn't careful. Along with what they were going to do, "eve, I know this is a cowardly thing, but we need to leave." Eve looked to her father, not caring about the family pride and rules, and said "where will you guys be?" her father replied evilly, "a Stonetumbler safe haven." Eve looked mildly surprised and satisfied: the Ares clan was otherwise known as the Blackwater clan, and the Stonetumbler clan were their mortal enemies. But the Stonetumbler clan knew some things about the Blackwater clan that gave them the upper hand, family members who were cast out, were never allowed to come back or they risked death. Eve's father knew about this and had a plan to visit a safe haven he knew about. The Blackwater clan would not come near one of those. "Sweet!" eve replied, but her downcast and worried mood, crept back into her. "What about me?" eve's father looked serious as he stated, "you have to be there, or they will seek and kill immediately, me and mom are working out how to get off of the grid, and change our identities, so they can't ever, find us. But no matter what happens, or whatever you do, I will always be proud to have been your father." He stated as he hugged her. Then his ears registered something, and he stopped. "Do you hear flapping?" eve looked behind her to see that her crow was flying towards her cawing happily. Her father looked on in worry as the bird flew towards eve, but was relieved and highly surprised when eve held out her hand and the crow landed on it and nuzzled her face, glad to see her, "hehe, good to see you too bud!" her father was astonished "wha… how… eve… crows are the hardest birds to tame… how did you get it to be your pet?" he asked as he looked at her in awe. "Long story…" eve replied hastily, not wanting to go into details of her graveyard adventures.

"So what will you do, eve?" eve's father asked. Eve replied from her thoughts "I will evaluate my circumstances, and take action." Eve's father looked to her skeptically. "Run if I need to, fight if I can, I'm probably going to run, I can't stand this hole anyway." Her father laughed heartily, "that's what I like to hear!" eve's father thought of something, and pulled up a sleeve on his black shirt, "dang, eve I have to go, I made a meeting with one of the clan members." Eve nodded, "I understand," she paused before turning to him and hugged him "thank you, I couldn't have made it here without you." Her father smiled and hugged back, "I love you eve, that is why we kept you, we did not care about strength, we cared about you." Eve's father broke away, "but now you must be strong for us ok?" eve nodded and ran off to the arena.

The arena was a tall circular building, offset to the left of the field that eve had traversed the previous night, it was made of beige colored stone. On the outside it looked almost inviting, but on the inside where there was not a public walkway that everyone used was covered in dried coats of blood, really only the arena was cleaned itself. Eve walked into the main hall of the arena, already people were gathering, which made her nervous. But what made her nervous was not the amount of family members that were present, but what she saw they had: Many had sheathes for swords of all sizes, some were plainly brandishing their weapon of choice, she saw a knife here, a mace there. What worried her the most was the master's box, a large balcony connected to a roofed room that held all of the highly ranked viewers. She saw Ares up high in the center a sword on his back that was taller and almost wider than him, to his right was his daughter Shadow, and to his left was his son Chris or "Crimson." For obvious reasons. Shadow wielded a black metal bow and razor sharp arrows with hooks on the bottom of the head, and Chris wielded a gruesome sword that bore many protruding spikes pointed towards his hand. Nervousness picked at her mind as she evaluated her circumstances, things were not looking good.

The minutes were ticking by like hours, and eve still hadn't come up with an escape plan. _I cannot escape if I don't have a plan! Focus, focus, focus…_ eve looked around; observing nothing out of the ordinary at first but with some careful observation and recall of knowledge of the event she remembered something… _weapons, anything in the arena._ Her eyes drift towards a long wooden plank off to the side, probably left from the last fight. _Use your surroundings to your advantage,_ the left and right sides of the arena were lower than the front and back. A small round rock protruded from the ground, _YES! THAT'S IT!_ She thought as she cracked the smallest smile.

Eve's attention was snapped when a voice rang in through the intercom "ladies and gentlemen of the Ares clan, Welcome to the arena! Today we are here to witness eve battle for her right of passage as a permanent member of the Blackwater clan!" most of the clan cheered while she notices some of them were shaking their heads, with evil grins. "Her opponent is a volunteer, who has completed his rite of passage but two weeks ago. Give it up for Samson!" Eve felt her hope dashed, shredded to a million pieces. Samson was her brother, he was the kindest of all of her siblings, and he cared about her the most. She couldn't believe her eyes, Samson was standing at the other end of the arena, dressed in his trademark black hoodie, dark red headband, and grey jeans. Samson bore an evil smile, she was sure that he had wanted to kill her ever since she was born, but he must have hidden his bloodlust rather well. "Competitors! Ready?" Samson took an offensive stance, eve did the same. Suspense hangs thick in the air as the siblings take battle stances, a gong thunders in the background, and the brother and sister charge at each other. Anger, in eve's eyes, determination concentration and regret in Samson's.

Samson charged without yelling and threw a light fist forward, eve dodged easily. And returned with a quick jab to his stomach, he took the blow and continued to throw weak punches at her. Eve perceived the fact that he was being light with his attacks and did not block any of hers, which made her suspicious but not detoured, she continued to deliver blows until she thought he was weak, which was oddly much earlier than usual, but she continued nonetheless. He was panting and was being lighter and lighter on his attacks, until eve landed a kick to the stomach, he stumbled backward and grabbed at his stomach. Eve seeing an opportunity she sprinted towards Samson knowing the blow could end the battle, and threw a punch forward. She was shocked to see that Samson got up and dodged the blow like it was nothing, leaving her wide open. Samson put his right arm around his neck and pulled …very lightly... Eve wasn't sure what she was more stunned about: the fact that he had made his exhaustion look so real, Or the fact that she had let herself go defenseless in the attack she made, but what surprised her the most, was the fact that her brother hadn't killed her yet. Was he toying with her? Was he seeking the attention of the crowd? As soon as he got his arm around her neck she was eager to struggle, but he slyly brought his head towards her ear "pretend you're chocking and listen to me…" he stated quick enough for her to register. Eve pretended to grasp and cut at his arm while he whispered swiftly, and softly, "I know your plan, seesaw with plank and stone, I'm sorry and I love you, now trip me."

For a split second she could not have been happier in her life and wanted to hug her brother and say thank you, but thanks to sheer willpower she remained in her panicked looking state, and carried out the plan without anyone being the wiser. _You don't have to tell me twice…_ she swiftly brought her foot behind Samson's and brought it forward tripping Samson. She managed to back a few feet away from Samson, who got up in the meantime. Samson charged and eve picked up the wooden plank, and swung at his head, he ducked then stood, only to be tripped as she brought it around a second time, she placed the board on the rock so that it was balanced and tried to get up. Samson had already stood and as soon as eve was on her feet, Samson landed a light, but powerful punch, not causing much pain but sending her to the ground, her head rested on the wooden plank, Samson cracked a smile and leaped high into the air doing a flip before coming down feet first, eve grinned evilly, seeing the opportunity he had created: she brought her legs to her body while pushing down on the ground causing her to roll too the other side of the seesaw, and when she felt herself rolling to the other side she brought her feet towards the wooden plank the next chance she got and shot her legs down starting a jump, swinging her arms out to the side. The moment she started rising, Samson's feet hit the board, and he faked a shocked face as eve shot into the air with her arms extended out to her sides, making it look like she was flying, as she twisted in midair and her and her brother's eyes made contact he had on a sly smile only she could see and mouthed the words 'I love you.' While eve mouthed the words 'thank you!' and eve landed lightly in a thick bush.

 _Ok! So according to the barbarian family rules, I should run like hell now, right?_ Her answer was confirmed by angry battle cries growing from the arena. _YEP! RUN LIKE HELL!_ She burst from the bush at top speed, and ran towards the one place she thought she could hide, when her dream came back to her, and the memory of the trapdoor hanging in her mind. _This place is crawling with more clan members than an fps, so leaving towards town isn't safe, period…_ she glanced behind her to see that there was a crowd of clan members following her. "runrunrunrunRUNRUNRUNRUNRUN!" she told herself as she heard something wiz by her head, she glanced back again: Shadow was far behind shooting arrows from her bow, Chris was leading the pack with his saw-like sword in hand, there was no way she wanted to be caught, by him. She hit the treeline, and the cries for blood receded. Sure they were fast but the forest was her second home, and she navigated it like the back of her hand.

The heavy fog of the cemetery came into sight,the only place of death she was actually happy to see. She sprinted in and found the pavilion quickly, and her crow was oddly already there, hopping anxiously atop the hidden escape. _Please let this work, please let this work!_ She repeated to herself as she pushed on the sarcophagus lid, with some effort the lid screeched against metal wheels but it slid right off, and stopped just before it would normally slide off with a thud, eve looked in to see a trapdoor, she needed no more words, she knew what she needed to do, with battle cries nearing she pried open the trapdoor loudly and looked into the unknown for a second. A whizzing sound snapped her out of her thoughts, and a searing pain shot down her left arm, she looked to her and found a deep cut in her skin towards the shoulder, she hesitated no longer and jumped down the hole at first she felt a square opening sliding into the unknown, wind fleeing past in a few seconds the slide lost its hard corners and became a circular smooth stone slide, about thirty seconds pass traveling I an unknown direction when her eyes are greeted with light and the slide opens up and she is sitting many feet before a torch-lit door. She grasps at her left arm, pain still searing through it, and walks into the unknown.

Eve walked into the doorway not knowing what to expect, but was on guard. In the room was plain with beige walls and two other doorways, one with gold and the other, like the one she had just entered through. A singular corpse lay in the center of the room, _what the…_ the corpse groans and gets to its feet. _Oh great._ "CAW!" eve's crow lunges from her shoulder and flies to the top of the room, before descending at a breakneck pace to crash into the zombie like creature. The crow starts pecking and jabbing relentlessly, the pacer flails around _on_ the floor as the crow kills it slowly. _Guess I have to join in._ eve picks up the zombie by the arms and stands it up before firing a kick to its ribcage. The pacer falls to the ground motionless, and doors are heard opening, the doors had closed when eve entered.

Eve looks to the golden door and shrugs _where else can I go._ She looks to the beige door and walks towards it slowly, upon entering she notices four stone pillars in each of the four corners of the room, emitting a bright blue fire, and in the middle of the room a singular stone pedestal stood among the flat of the room. Eve approached the stone pedestal, the item floating above it was cloaked in red mist. Upon approaching the pedestal the red mist cleared and the item was clearly visible: it was a floating emblem made of black metal surrounded by red energy, a five pointed star inside a crescent moon. _Should I take it? I have no other weapons to fight these creatures. I don't know what lies ahead. I may need this…_ eve reluctantly puts her hand to it, and picks it up. Immediately the red aura vanishes into her hand, worrying her slightly. She continues to observe the metal in her hands when it slowly rises into the air and glows red, eve attempts to back up but is frozen in place, the metal seems to become molten, and all that remains visible is a red sphere of swirling energy. She continues to struggle against the invisible restraints when the red orb starts moving towards her, it stops 3 feet before her, suspended in midair, before it shoots towards her heart. The moment it hits her she felt like her very soul was being burnt. Red arcs of energy were leaping across her body as she remain trapped kneeling in pain. The red arcs stopped, but her body was engulfed in red flame, and she watched as reminders of failure and weakness flow through her mind while her skin seems to burn into a dark grey color, her fingers grow small claws at the ends. The red fire disappeared and she was able to move around. She looked at herself, all of her skin was blackened to a dark grey, she felt two protrusions on her head, she put her hand to the strange protrusions and felt horns, _and so is this me?_ She thought dismally, _am I going to be stuck as this monster for the rest of my life._ She sat against a wall hugging her legs, crying. Finally she remembered " _no matter what happens, I will always be proud to have been your father"_ she remembered why she needed to escape in the first place, _I need to remain strong, or I will truly fail. I will have failed my family my parents, and myself._ She looked at her self, _no matter what happens._ She walked towards the door. Unsure if her new form would ever be reverted, and continued unto the unknown.

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 **I think I did a little bit better on this chapter than some of the others, tell me what you think. I am pretty excited to write the rest of this arc, this… folks, is where it, gets, interesting!**

 **Until next time!**


	20. THaB arc 2 pt 5

**AN: GUESS WHAT, FOLKS! SereneFlames is BACK! This is the first post-hiatus chapter that Serene has edited, so expect at least 200% more fluent reading, cause honestly…my grammar sucks!**

 **Hello one and all of FanFiction! I bring you the next part of To Hell and Back! Tell me how I'm doing, it helps! Not to mention it also motivates me to get chapters out faster!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Binding of Isaac, or any of its characters.**

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Arc 2 Pt 5 The Grass is Greener on the Other Side

Isaac entered the next room, a determined attitude and looked around: to his left was an item room, which was good. To his right, however: a black door frame with spikes on the inside. In other words, not good, though his instincts decided to spite him. He slowly approached the door to his right. The spikes looked awfully dangerous considering they had remnants of dried blood on them, but they didn't seem deadly. _No pain, no gain_ , Isaac thought as he reluctantly stepped through, spikes catching on his skin.

Once inside, he observed: black stone walls and floor, with a grey stone pedestal like the ones in the item room in the center. Isaac approached it slowly: it seemed to be nothing more than a black robe, floating above the pedestal, but it also seemed to be emitting many colors in a faint aura. Isaac picked up the robe and felt the cloth; it was soft to the touch and was like a light jacket. Isaac smiled. "Finally! A shirt!" Isaac put on the robe blissfully, and almost instantly he felt warmer. He also felt... powerful. Testing what the robe had done, he put a hand out in front of him and a wisp of fire ignited upon the thought of a spark. He also notices the robe glow; unseen etches in the robes fabric were lit orange from the fire he was creating. He put both of his arms above his head and concentrated, his entire robe was ignited a bright orange in all of the etching, revealing just how awesome the robe was to him. He smiled and turned towards the door, spikes littered with more blood. Isaac slouched over in annoyance, looking at his body to see cuts all over him. He straightened and sighed. "The price you gotta pay, huh?"

Isaac was happy even after he went through the spikes. The great amount of warmth just from a few cuts was definitely worth it. He stood in the room staring at the gold framed door. After all, the grass is always greener on the other side, and what great thing would be greener than this coat? He approached the golden door. Inside was a pedestal, check. Four smooth boulders in each of the corners, check. A pile of poop floating above the pedestal, che- "Wait...no way, that's not...hang on!" He read the plaque below it, "The Poop," and similar subtext "Plop!" Isaac deadpanned at the stupid item he had gotten. "This item is a bunch of crap!" Isaac smiled. "But you know what? I got my little buddy right here-" he grabbed the red die from his pocket, "-and he says that's not happening!" He threw it at the pedestal, the die flashed red and disappeared along with the item, and was replaced with a sphere of white light. The white light soon vanished and Isaac felt the die return to his pocket. He looked to the pedestal; a deformed large green brain floats above the pedestal. Isaac made a horrified face. "Do I even want to know what that is? ...Better than poop, I guess..." He was about to reach for it when a pillar of light opened above him to the left of the pedestal, the boy from the cathedral fell from it and gracefully landed placing two items on the ground, before leaping into the heavens. Isaac shrugged and, although taken aback by the sudden appearance, walked up to them; a piece of paper and an oversized battery lay on the ground, Isaac opened up the paper first and read it.

Dear Isaac:

That thing over there-

Isaac looked to where the arrow pointed, at the pedestal with "the brain" on it.

-you do not want that... _thing_ , trust me.

So take this mostly safe, normal battery, free of charge! And please, get rid of that horrendous abomination of a brain any way you can.

Sincerely,

Your friend

PS: I liked the pun!

Isaac picks up the battery, curious as to its purpose. The battery floated into the air and releases a massive bolt of electricity which arcs to the red die in Isaac's pocket. 'Shocked', but not necessarily surprised, Isaac takes out the D6 and finds all of its faces restored. He gives one last look to the letter before joyfully stating, "My pleasure!" and throws the D6 to the stone pedestal.

Upon contact with the pillar, the brain disappears in a flash of red, and all seemed to be calm. Isaac looks to the pedestal with slight worry, but then feels the die reappear in his pocket and sighs in relief. He returns his attention to the pedestal, as wisps of red and dark pink fall towards the pedestal and swirl in a column to form a small red ball with two very short, stubby arms, and a ball similar to the body but smaller, and a head with cute black eyes and a wide open and smiling mouth. Isaac looks to the plaque below the little form and reads, "Little C.H.A.D." And its new subtext, "Gives kisses."

Isaac looks to the form, not completely sure if he wants to take it, and thinks hard about it, but it is kind of hard to think for Isaac when Little C.H.A.D was giving him pleading eyes while flailing her arms at him. Finally he couldn't resist; he smiled and rolled his eyes before saying, "Fine, you're coming with me." Little C.H.A.D did flips in the spot she was bound to, and stuck her arms towards Isaac. Isaac touched one of her arms, and a once invisible barrier shattered like glass. She flew in circles and pounced on Isaac, knocking him to the ground. "Ack! Yes, okay! You're coming with me, so you can get off of me now."

Little C.H.A.D finally gets off of Isaac and flies happily around him. _Somehow, I think this item is going to be a little troublesome_ , Isaac thought as he leaves the item room with his new companion, and stares at the door leading into the next room. Only one way left to go.

 _Perhaps the same grasses grew on each side_ , he thought as he went back along his path.

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 **Next chapter should be out soon. If you liked it review, tell me what I'm doing right! And wrong, of course.**

 **Until next time.**

 **A note from SereneFlames: Hey everyone, I'm the editor of this story. This note applies to all fans of Paranoia's Grasp, a story I'm also working on. I'll start sending out chapters soon enough, but for now I want to relax and keep this story going for a bit, then I'll get to my story. I hope you enjoy the story. :D**

 **\- SF**


	21. THaB arc 2 pt 6

**"Hello one and all of FanFiction! I bring you another part of To Hell and Back! Please enjoy as well as review, follow, and favorite for more THaB faster.**

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Arc 2 Pt 6: Traversing the Labyrinth

Isaac entered the next room, immediately noticing a pacer. Isaac looked around the room to see if he had everything he needed. _Pebbles_. Isaac mentally went down the checklist. _Pitfall_. All of the things he needed to get rid of a pacer. "Perfect!" he whispered as he picked up a rock and threw it at the wall behind the pit. When the rock bounced of the wall and into the pit, the pacer investigated. Stepping over the edge and disappearing, the next door opened and Isaac proceeded.

In this room: a gaper, a pit, a plan. Isaac walks over to the front of the pit. "Hey, Mr. Gaper!" The gaper moans and runs towards Isaac, and he sidestepped and clotheslined the zombie. The pacer lands on the other side of the pit, hanging in by most of its back, fingers grasping the edge. Isaac frowned and forms an ember, shooting it at the gapers face. The gaper's face cringes as the ember makes contact right on the nose, its arms fly towards its face leaving its legs hanging clinging. "Are you that stubborn?" Isaac spits out and walks to the other side, kicking the legs of the gaper off the edge. He was satisfied when he heard no further resistance. "Next."

This had continued for an hour or so, when Isaac eventually realized something. _Wait a minute...it has been an hour and I have only gone straight, where is this taking me?_ He looked back to where he came from; he saw all of the rooms he had conquered, all in one straight line. Eventually his eyes had passed so many rooms that it all started to fade into a grey haze. "That far?" Isaac stated in disbelief, and continued to clear rooms at a slow pace as he let his mind roam.

 _So where exactly am I? Am I in a medieval arena, used for people's entertainment? How were all of these monsters kept down here? Don't they escape?_ His mind wandered until he got to the more interesting questions. _What's waiting for me on the other side? Life? Friends? Days that are just…normal?_ Isaac stopped in his tracks just before he was going to enter the next room. "Normal?" he stated as he tilted his head, almost unfamiliar with the word. He lets the thought settle, but bursts out laughing. "HA! Like I'll ever get a normal day, ever!" He continued in his thoughts. _Sure, there are some days that I would want nothing more than to be a normal child_. He paused and lifted his hand, _Then again, being weird has its perks_ , he thought as an ember danced on his fingertips before falling back into his hand.

-=In a place far, far away=-

Cain stood before a doorway, determination evident in his wide smile, ready for whatever the world has to throw at him, with a backpack upon his shoulders. As he steps into the next room, he sees one door on the other side of the room, and...a headless corpse. In fright he recoils a few feet back before observing the body more closely; bleeding where the base of the neck should be and the rest of the body unaltered. _What the…_ Cain is able to think before the corpse emits a deep groan and attempts to get to its feet. "AH! ZOMBIE!" Cain blurts out and starts repeatedly kicking the corpse. Eventually he stops assaulting the body and leaves it to twitch. After he steps away from the corpse, he hears the doors opening. He apprehensively walks towards the next room, but is stopped by the sound of a wooden chest falling from the ceiling. He turns to it, unsure of its purpose and opens it slowly.

A miniature bomb the size of his hand sits suspiciously in the middle. "Thank goodness." He attempts to pick up the bomb, but finds it to be heavier than a ball of pure metal. The bomb rumbles and expands to be larger than his own body, and a small screen displayed the number 10, then started to count down, a fuse magically lit itself on top of the bomb. "What!? Oh hell no!" Cain screamed in horror as he fled, he was able to run through the next three rooms before the blast shook the ground and annihilated that part of the complex.

-=…elsewhere…=-

Isaac was clearing rooms like average, except he would try new tactics every once in a while to use the things he had to advantage, when he sensed something. He stopped, hearing a voice, and, while not actually audible, it manifested in his mind no less. He heard a few jumbled words shouted very distantly followed by panicked screaming. His thoughts were interrupted when the faintest light shone from down the very extensive hallway, and suddenly the ground beneath him shook rather violently. A second later a thunderous shockwave, brought a light draft to Isaac's skin. While he was astonished, he was also intrigued by the happening and thought to himself. _A monster could not have done that, but…so that means…_ A wide smile spread across his face. He started clearing rooms as hastily as he could without tiring himself, and headed in that direction.

-=Cain…=-

Cain lay face first on the ground, a few cuts scattered across his skin. "How pleasant," he spat out sarcastically, muffled by the dirt.

After a few seconds of lying there, he lazily brought his arms to the ground and pushed himself up to his knees, the ringing in his ears stopping after a few seconds. As his mind cleared of the ringing, he thought, _I need to move. That explosion was huge, so somebody, or rather something, will be bound to arrive and investigate_.

He went into the next room and looked around. While he knew his time was short, he sat down and mapped every possible detail of the room he could observe with his senses: _plain, one other doorway, compacted dirt floor, and a bomb in the corner, avoid that…_ He got up and stood still, looking for out of place features. His eyes widened. _Wait a minute…_

He rubbed his hand on his forehead and stuck it in the air, an otherwise undetectable draft blew away from the wall on his right, running through all of the information he had in his mind; he knew that a draft meant a hole, now he needed to test how big the hole was. He picked up a hefty rock and bashed it against the wall, the thud sounded several times lighter and lighter every time it echoed. _An entire room!?_ he thought in surprise. A strategy came to him. _Aha, everything has a purpose._ He went over to the bomb and hefted it over to the wall. _Next step, clear the area._ He entered the next room and was happy when he saw there was nothing in the room, just another doorway. He rushed back into the room and pushed the bomb against the wall. The final step repeated itself in his mind. _Ignition and detonation_. The bomb had a fuse, but Cain saw a flaw in his plan; there was nothing to light it with.

He felt dismayed. _No! I have gotten this far, I can't quit now. But what am I going to do!? It's not like I have the time to search for something in the backpack!_ He hung his head and shut his eyes. No plan he ever made had failed before. He always had proper training and experience, but nothing prepared him for this. He sat down again when suddenly a red light came from nowhere in his left eye, and he opened them. He saw lines of text falling from the top of his vision in his mechanical eye, and became confused. _Is it broken?_ The falling lines of text disappeared and was replaced by two lines of console like text that read, "Source of ignition - Laser?" and in fine print read "Yes or No."

Taken aback by the eye's sudden 'request' but needing to finish his plan to escape whatever might be coming, he thought, _Yes! Please!_ The light inside of his left eye went green. "Confirmed," a voice said in his ear. Cain, starting to freak out a little, thought, _What the hell is going on here?_ "In due time. that will be answered," the voice sounded in his ear, "but for now, you need a source of ignition. Do not close your left eyelid or it might burn. Please wait as the laser is calibrated."

Cain thought he was going crazy, but for the sake of whatever sanity and chance he had left, he just went with the swing of things. The vision in his left eye went dark as the eye transformed itself from the inside to prepare the laser. Moments later a small red flash followed by many little dots flying around on a wall had shown Cain was not crazy. The little red dots started to form a solid circle of bright light on the wall. The voice chimed in, "Laser grid calibrated! Stare at the point of ignition as if you are using both eyes. Focusing laser grid…"

After the voice finished, Cain noticed the circle becoming more brilliant as it compacted itself into a small beam. Cain stared at the tip of the fuse and almost immediately the fuse started burning, Cain's thoughts transferred into the eye, and the laser stopped. He ran into the other room while the eye reverted to giving Cain sight. Another explosion rang in his ears and he ran into the room to find a hole in the wall small enough for him to crawl through and cracks all around it. "Sweet!" Cain stated and crawled through.

He was greeted with fresh cool air and large mushrooms in each of the room's four corners. Before he did anything else he took what rubble he could find and put it at the entrance of the room, blocking it off. He rested on a mushroom that was much like a bed. After all that happened, the only thing that he wanted to do was know more about what just happened back there. Hoping to be a little less confused he tried conversing, instead of silent thinking. "Can you hear me?" Cain said softly. The voice replied in what Cain perceived to be a feminine voice. "Yes."

Cain waited before asking more. "So what exactly are you? Do you have a name?" It was a second before the voice replied, "Do you want the long version, or the short version?" Cain laughed. "The long version, actually." The voice finally gave Cain the 'long version' of her name. "I am a Semi Integral Extrasensory Relay Application, otherwise known as Siera." Cain understood a little of what her name meant, but not entirely."So you are important to what, the eye itself? Important to me? And what about the extrasensory relay part?" Siera took a second to process all of the information, then replied, "Well, I am important to the eye and you. I am here to advise you on the use of its functions and I determine when it is necessary to give you advice on uses. Such as when you needed the laser. In general, I am a personal assistant." Cain nodded and asked, "Makes sense, but what about extrasensory relay?" Siera was quick to return "I am also here to give you information that you cannot perceive or register well with your own senses such as exact temperature, time, place, and a variety of other environmental variables. So yes, extrasensory relay; Your second mind, your third eye, your sixth sense, etc."

Cain nodded in understanding, and asked one more important question. "You also seem kind of…humorous, what is that about?" Siera replied like protocol, "Ah, yes! I was built to be of assistance in any way possible that is within my programming, so my programmers made me kinda like how a human mind thinks, because normally computers are not understanding of the human mind and its thoughts. they only perceive patterns built in to their reaction system." Siera paused. "Well, actually…" Cain, wondering what she was going to say, asked, "What's wrong?" Siera finally replied, "It's… kinda creepy, are you sure you want to know?" Cain responded "It's okay, at this rate, I am used to creepy." Siera was surprised "Really? You look rather young to know-" Cain interrupted with a sigh. "Siera, who do you think put you in here?" he said as he pointed to the mechanical eye so the camera inside could register. "Not to mention the fact that I was not sedated. I may be crazy, but I put it in myself. It went against an innumerable amount of normal things a human would do. But I was desperate enough to do it almost without hesitation. I think I can handle a gruesome truth every now and then." He finally finished.

Siera was surprised, but she continued as requested. "Well, when my programmers made me, they were having trouble trying to get me adaptable to other types of minds, so they did some research and found the only way to get me to be as adaptable as possible to other human minds was to assimilate me to the human brain, so a small group of 10 people were selected out of a large test group to have me copy. The 10 people were 2 infants, 2 children, 2 teenagers, 2 adults, and 2 elderly, each of opposite gender. They were put in large tubes and had sensors and hardware put in them that many hundreds of computers; monitored, studied, maintained, and kept alive. A single supercomputer compiled, and processed information that eventually led to me. To my records, all are still alive, in fact some are free to live outside the complex in the real world." She finished.

Cain just lay there with all of the new information, his mind blown, mouth hanging open just slightly. Siera replied slowly, "I know it is a lot to take in, but don't ask too many questions. You may ruin some of the surprises." Cain finally brought some words to his mouth and he smiled "life... just got… a hell of a lot more interesting…"

Several hours had passed, but, without Siera, Cain wouldn't know how long. Cain asked small questions ever since he found out about the massive archive he has literally in sight. He grew tired and was going to have to sleep soon enough. "Are you going to stay up much longer?" Siera asked in a bored tone. Cain replied, "Yes, but I have a few questions." Siera sighed but returned, "Yes?" Cain asked tiredly, "How long will you be with me?" Siera retorted, "As long as you are alive." Cain continued. "Will you die? You know, battery wise." Siera laughed lightly. "No. Long story short, I recharge overnight and the lasers use superconductors, so hardly any battery is used. Why?" Cain smiled and closed his eyes. "Because I still need answers to hundreds of questions," he yawned tiredly and went to sleep.

On the inside, only Cain knew his sleep would be filled with more than just rest.

* * *

 **Man, that took forever, to write. (And edit, lol!) For now we are DONE! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, review, favorite, and follow if you did! Next chapter should be out sometime in the next week.**

 **Until next time.**

 **\- R-015, - SF**

 **PS give serene a round of applause, this took a good hour for serene to edit, and my product was not that pretty, trust me, my product would not make for good fluent reading**


	22. THab arc 2 pt 7

**Hello to all of my readers, and welcome to Arc 2 Pt 7 of To Hell and Back! Read, review and enjoy the new chapter!**

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Arc 2 Pt 7: A Fateful Encounter

Cain awoke with a strange feeling: his back was against something smooth. As he tiredly turned, he noticed it was a door. He lifted his eyelids, expecting to find himself at home, but was instead in a long hallway, a faint light shining from the end of it. Not startled, surprised, or taken aback by the change in scenery, he got up slowly. He felt a presence surrounding him; a white sphere of mist and light circled in front of his face, then the sphere stopped and fell into the ground. White energy arced forward, leaving a trail of mist at Cain's feet. He followed the trail of mist instinctively, knowing of his actions and what this might do to him. He walks for 5 minutes before the trail of mist abruptly stops. A wall of smooth bricks stands before him. He turns back to find that the energy was arcing off of the floor towards the wall, the energy crawling up the seams in the bricks until it surrounds a single brick at eye level. _What am I doing? I feel so confident, but it's barely me that's doing this._ Cain consciously reaches for the brick; it falls into the wall and many other bricks follow until a large doorway leads into a different room. Without a thought, Cain walks in.

Upon entry, the bricks close behind him, sealing him in. He turns to the wall, hoping he could push the brick back. He had control over his body by now, so he tried to push the brick out, but when he reached where the wall was he was stopped by an invisible force. He put a hand to the barrier and light revealed seams in the wall. "One way wall," he recognized. He was going to look around the room when he heard the sound of a distant door opening. He looked to the hallway and saw someone approaching: the figure wore what looked to be a black hoodie and beige cargo shorts. Its face was not visible through the hoodie, but Cain noticed an orange glow from its forehead. Its stance suggested it was looking at the wall in suspicion, but it turned around as if nothing was wrong. It wouldn't get the chance to walk away, a deep growl thundered through the long hallway. Through the haze, Cain spotted a massive humanoid beast approaching, shrouded in shadows, and only the green slits on its head were the visible features. The hooded figure retreated a few feet, the monster lurching slowly towards it.

-=…nearby…=-

Isaac was starting to get exhausted from all of the rooms he had cleared. He approached the next room, and looked to the doorway, "How many more of these rooms do I have to clear?" he asked to himself. He had been clearing rooms for hours, part of him wanted to stop and rest. The other part of him knew he might not get another chance to find another human in this labyrinth. He stepped in, expecting to find more pacers to clear. Yet, on the contrary, he was met with dead silence. _No pacers… somebody has been here._ He continued to find empty rooms, until he discovered something. He approached the door, but immediately stopped upon seeing rubble in the next. _So that's what caused the explosion…_ Isaac thought to himself as he looked on, someone might be nearby. He noticed few rooms back, there was a path to his right, and so he went back and took it: walls to his right and left, and a door straight ahead, still no pacers. He entered the next doorway. Only a door to his right, so he entered.

Isaac looked around the room and saw nothing but plain walls and no obstructions; a dead end. Isaac realized his mistake too late and turned to run as the door shut and two giant metal bars appeared over the doorway, sealing him in. A light rumble sounded as a pool of green liquid leaked in from the ground and swirled up to form a body: it had no skin, but looked to be protected by layers of green caustic flesh. It had hollow eyes and a wide open mouth, oozing with green saliva. The first thing it did was spit a green orb through the air at Isaac. Knowing all too well what happened with those kinds of projectiles, he jumped out of the way as the shot came down with a light bang...

Cain stood near the wall facing the giant creature with traces of fear, even though he was behind a wall of his own, when the world itself seemed to shake and thunder. A panel of light appeared in front of his right eye...

Isaac runs around the room dodging explosive shots and kicking large maggots across the room. With a fireball fully formed in his hands, he flings it at the creature, barely having moved from the center of the room. The creature takes the hit dead on, but only flinches. _Lazy Sloth!_ Isaac thought as he started to form another fireball in his hands. After kicking a few more bugs and dodging a few more bullets, Isaac threw the fireball. Again, it exploded at the creature's feet and it flinched. Isaac paused for a moment, as the smoke started to clear, Sloth was revealed, and he spat another large explosive shot at Isaac. He rolled and dodged the projectile, but when it impacted on the wall beside him, he flew a few feet and landed hard on the ground, cringing as he rolled…

The panel of light shimmered and Cain stared in wonder, not noticing the beast approaching the hooded figure slowly. The panel then revealed text. "Save him?" Two smaller panels appeared to his left and right, the one on the right reading "Yes" in green text, and the one on the left reading "No" in red…

Isaac laid on the ground, pain arcing throughout his body. He barely finds the strength to go get to his knees, then to his feet. Sloth stands far off…

Cain thinks for a moment, a smile coming to his face. The panel that read 'Yes' enlarges and flashes a few times before disappearing. He turns towards the solid wall, and paces towards it while speaking; "Many have seen me as stone cold and even hostile, but…" he pauses "I am not evil now. I am not cruel now." He turns and yells, "I AM NOT HEARTLESS!" He sprinted and leapt with supernatural strength towards the glass wall and swings his foot to kick the wall. The wall splinters and Cain flips before leading with his fist crashing towards the monster. His vision floods with white as he falls closer and closer to the beast…

Isaac's thoughts barrage him, his concentration breaking, barely staying conscious, much less standing, his hope fading, time slowing. He lets the thoughts flow. _So is this it? Is this the end? Will my life go, unnoticed? Will I be remembered, where will I go? Regardless of what happens, let it be known, that man does have a say over his fate._ He opens his eyes and uses the last of his strength to watch as an explosive shot is fired from Sloth's maw.

 _...even, if only to a certain extent…_

* * *

 **TBC...**

 **Until next time...**

 **\- R-015 and SF**

 **AN: sorry about the extremely late upload, many technical diffulties, and bad organization on my part. the next chapter should be out soon(er)**


	23. THaB arc 2 pt 7 conclusion

**Welcome back, one and all to...To Hell and Back! I was really feeling like doing another chapter and I felt like I needed to do something after that almost hiatus worthy break. So please, enjoy the conclusion of Arc 2 Pt 7! Review, favorite and follow for more THaB faster!**

 **Conan4774… if you are reading this, then the answer is obviously yes.**

* * *

Cain awoke from his sleep with a start, a gaping hole in the wall opposite of the one he came in through. He got to his feet and ran towards the opening: a body lay in the center of the next room, a black hoodie and beige cargo shorts, a dead giveaway to his identity.

"Him…" Cain stated in awe, not knowing that the person even existed.  
The fact that his dream of all things gave such a clear and parallel image shocked him. It was clear the boy was not dead-he only had a few cuts on him-but an impact must have knocked him out. He looked up from the body.

"that." He spat out as he stared at Sloth.  
Sloth shot out a projectile, wanting to make sure Cain suffered the same fate, but he dodged and the projectile exploded in the next room. Immediately Cain started planning while dodging. _What can I do to that thing to kill it, or render it harmless?_ he thought as another explosive projectile was dodged. It gave him an idea. _Kill it with its own explosive! But how…_ He started cycling through possible methods until the memory of the laser igniting the bomb came to mind. He paused the thought and let it sink in as an evil smile crept on his face and he cackled.

"Siera, I need the laser." Cain stated quickly, kicking a maggot to the other side of the room,

"What for?" she questioned as the vision in his left eye went black, Cain imagined the plan so Siera could read it.

"Understood! Wait for the beep, bring two fingers to your left temple to fire." Cain smiled.  
He kept dodging the bullets and kept the overgrown bugs away, making sure that the hooded boy was safe. He started to feel a little warmth from his left eye,

"Siera?" he questioned anxiously.

"Normal, just means the laser is nearly ready." Siera replied quickly.

After a few more dodges, the beep sounded. Cain smiled and started phase two; as soon as Sloth shot the next projectile, it left itself wide open. Cain sprinted forward and, using his momentum, he slammed an arm into Sloth, sending it to the other side of the room. Cain waited for the green creature to get up, his two fingers together hovering above his temple. Sloth turned to face Cain.

"Next time, put up more of a challenge," he taunted as he brought his fingers to his temple. A red beam shot out and singed Sloth, burning his mouth and eyes shut.

"Phase three," Cain hoisted Isaac on to his shoulders,

"RUUUUUUUUUUUN!"

Sloth, not having any methods of getting rid of the explosive buildup, expanded, starting with its stomach, then its legs and arms. After Cain was out of the room, an explosion shook the ground, filling the room with green smoke, blood, and… various other chunks. Cain set the boy down on the mushroom he used as a bed. Going to rest himself.

Isaac was still unconscious from the explosion when a dream came to him: he stood at the end of a long highway, nothing behind him but a blank brick wall and mist. He shrugged.

"Nothing else to do here anyway," he spoke, walking slowly and taking in details. He felt a spot of warmth on his forehead, so he reached for it, but found his entire arm was invisible. He looked to his body but found it to be invisible as well. Though he continued, he has had stranger occurrences in the world of dreams.

He came to an open door on his right. He heard what sounded like a voice on the inside, but subconsciously he waited. For what, he did not know, but he felt it would be unsafe to just stroll in. He waited for a minute before he heard footsteps, light and almost leisurely. From the haze ahead, a human approached: he wore a burnt-orange colored shirt, and black cargo shorts. He had a backpack on, and one eye was normal, but the other eye looked…weird. He seemed not to notice Isaac or the door as he just walked straight past both of them.

"Hey!" Isaac shouted. The boy turned around, pausing, and finally walked towards the source of the sound, stopping when he noticed a small orange orb floating in midair. He slowly approached it and touched the orb.

Isaac felt him touch his forehead, and with a flash Isaac became fully visible; black hood over his head, beige cargo shorts, everything. The boy stood, surprised at the sudden appearance, but attempted to speak. He just stood there trying to talk, but Isaac could not hear anything.

"You can't talk, can you?" Isaac questioned.  
The boy shook his head and shrugged.

"Call it a hunch, but I have a feeling I know what you are here for." Isaac gestured to the door.

"What do you see here?" he questioned. The silent boy shrugged again. Isaac gestured to his forehead, poking at the orb. The boy gently touched it as a soft wave of orange fire revealed the shape of the door. It slid open. He looked at Isaac in awe and entered the hallway. Shortly after, he emerged back from the doorway, grabbing Isaac by the hand and dragging him into the hall with him.

Isaac awoke and the dream ended. He heard movement, so he opened his eyes to see the boy in the burnt-orange colored shirt and black cargo shorts. He sat, not too far from Isaac, on a large mushroom.

"Who are you?" Isaac questioned tiredly as he sat up.

"My name is Cain. What's yours?" he questioned, walking over to Isaac and putting a hand forward.

"Isaac. What happened?" Isaac replied rubbing the back of his head.

"You were knocked out cold, probably by an explosion from that monster. What do you remember last?" Cain questioned as Isaac took his hand and he was pulled to his feet.

He paused for a moment, his head hurt mildly just at the thought, but he soon replied. "I tried to fight the monster, I was knocked out, yet I am still alive. Thank you for saving me from that thing, but how did you defeat it?" Isaac replied. Cain smiled, putting two fingers on his left temple, his metallic, technology-like eye flashing.

"Perhaps you wouldn't want to know."

* * *

 **That is all for now. While the updates may be sparse, I am working on something else on DeviantArt at the same time, so you should check my DeviantArt out to see it. If you are on the watch list, you will see it the moment I am able to post it.**

 **Until next time.**

 **\- R-015, SF**


	24. THaB arc 2 pt 8

**Welcome back, one and all readers! Today I bring you Arc 2 Pt 8 of To Hell and Back, I don't know why, but I feel like it has been a week since I posted…weird. Anyway, please enjoy this new chapter. Review, favorite, and follow; it helps encourage me to write and my editor to edit.**

* * *

Isaac and Cain walk out of the secret room hole, made by Sloth, and head towards the intersection. Isaac decided they should go back to where he started, but then Cain asked a question. 

"How do you know all of this-where we are and where we should go?" 

Isaac smiled and grabbed the blue map from his pocket, "This is the Blue Map. I found it in a room with a lock in the middle. Have you seen one of those?" 

Cain shook his head. 

"I'll tell you later. Anyway, this map has more than one function: while it is useful for seeing rooms I have been to already, its main function is this," he states as he opens the map; a hundred little black dots form a line with many other dots scattered around the blue piece of paper. 

"All of those scattered dots are what I call secret rooms. They're little hollow rooms that can contain treasures and usually have to be blasted open. The dots in a line are ones I have explored, and the glowing white one is the one we are in right now."

Cain nodded, liking the new information. "Anything else interesting?" he quizzed.

"Well, uh…I got this cool hoodie...this thing up here..." he listed as he touched each item to show him what he meant. 

"...this key that opens 97 more doors or golden chests, and Little C.H.A.D." He gestured to empty space. 

"I don't see...'Little C.H.A.D'." Cain pointed to the empty space. 

"Wait, what?" Isaac froze. He frantically looked around, calling her name into the wind. From behind a doorway, she peeked out, hearing her master's voice, and, when she saw Isaac searching for her, she screeched joyfully and tackled Isaac to the ground. Cain was quick to react and was about to pry Little C.H.A.D off of Isaac when Isaac waved him away. 

"It's fine, Cain, it's fine," Isaac stated shakily as he hugged his little friend. Cain smiled, his heart softening at the happy reunion. 

"I know, I missed you too," Isaac said softly to her, who had her arms around his neck, tears pouring from her eyes. 

"So this is Little C.H.A.D," Cain quietly as he crouched next to Isaac. Isaac sat up, 

"Little C.H.A.D, this is Cain. He saved me." She hovered to eye level with Cain, when she saw Cain's mechanical eye she immediately kissed it. Cain, frozen and taken aback, managed to get out. "What was that for?"

Isaac laughed. "That's just her way of saying thanks. She also must have thought your eye was wounded."

Cain nodded slowly but tilted his head. "Why would she kiss you if you were wounded?"

"One time, I had a cut on my arm, and when she kissed me, the cut closed and stopped bleeding," he recalled. "Weird, but neat."

Isaac paused and threw him a question. "What's in the backpack?"

Cain straightened up. "You know…I haven't checked. Wanna find out?"

Isaac was quick to excitedly reply. "Yeah!" 

Cain pulled the backpack off of his back and opened it slowly, a memory echoing with wonder. "So this has everything possibly needed, if anything were to happen" His father looked to him with a sly smile. "Anything."  
Cain couldn't help but wonder, _anything? Did he prepare me for this?_ Cain reached in and pulled out an item: a small casing; thin, but extremely durable. Inside...

"A terabyte SD micro…why?" he questioned when an all too familiar voice sounded in his head. 

"Actually if you don't mind, can I have it?" Siera asked. Shrugging, he opened the case and held the SD as the vision in his left eye went dark and the red iris opened so the small but powerful memory card could fit. Cain carefully inserted the card and it receded back into his head, the iris closing back so he could see normally again.

Siera chimed in again. "You can now start recording in high definition video for approximately thirty days, start recording now?" 

"Yes," Cain stated. Isaac looked at Cain like he was a little crazy. 

"Uh, Cain. You alright?" Cain assured him it was no problem. 

"I'm just speaking with Siera," Cain chuckled lightly. Isaac continued to stare at him like he was a little more than mildly crazy. 

"Oh, trust me. This new eye does a lot more than you think." 

Isaac and Cain continued their journey, Cain's eye capturing everything. They cleared room after room until they got tired. They found a safe place to rest, and Isaac created a small fire to get them cozy. After a quick rest, they continued for a little longer when they came to a room with a secret room adjacent to a shop. Isaac knew he had no bombs, and he didn't want to ask for Cain for one, but he thought of something.

"Cain, I want you to go open that door while I try to find something to get into this secret room."

Cain agreed and Isaac gave him the skeleton key. He went back into the previous room and waited behind the wall. When he heard Cain's footsteps disappearing towards the shop, he quickly and quietly walked back into the room and took a stance. Cain walked up to the door and looked to the skeleton key in his hand, shrugged, and inserted the key into the lock. The door clicked and Cain took the key out. The numbers in the eyes read '96.' He looked inside from the doorway and saw many shelves lining the walls, along with a few items on the ground. But he couldn't just go in there without Isaac; not only would it be rude, but Isaac might suspect he was working against him, so he turned back. 

He entered the next room, expecting to find Isaac still searching for a bomb to open the wall, but what he saw, he couldn't believe: Isaac was standing next to the wall opposite the one he presumed to be the 'secret room,' eyes closed, with a bright ball of orange in his hands. The orange ball of fire collapsed into a ball of white light that shrank into Isaac's hand. Isaac held his left leg above the ground and balanced on his right. He brought his right hand into the air, glowing white, and waited. When he felt the moment was right, he slammed his left foot against the ground, and brought his right arm behind him. A wave of orange was traveling down unseen etches in the fabric of his hoodie, and when the wave of orange reached his hand he thrust it forward, opening his eyes, which were filled with an orange glow. The fireball that emitted from his hand was powerful enough for Cain to feel the heat from it where he was standing. The fireball sped like a bullet across the room and impacted on the wall, causing an immense explosion that opened the wall with ease. Isaac stood up and smiled, the orange glow gone from his eyes, satisfied with the gaping hole in the wall and turned to the doorway that Cain was standing in. his smile disappeared. 

Cain stood in the doorway, jaw hanging open and his eyes wide like saucers.

Isaac sighed. "You saw everything, didn't you?"

Cain stood there for a moment before words finally came to him. "That… was…"

Isaac interrupted, hanging his head. "Horrible, awful, evil,"

"AWESOME!"

Isaac lifted his head. "Really? You think that was cool?"

Cain approached him, wide eyed still. "If that isn't the coolest thing I have ever seen, then I don't know what is."

Isaac smiled happy that his friend didn't reject him for his abilities, then he told Cain, "Thank you, I thought the fire would freak you out."

Cain simply smiled and asked, "What else can you do with that stuff?"

* * *

 **Well I hope you all enjoyed this new chapter of To Hell and Back. Review, follow, and fav for more.**

 **Until next time.**

 **\- R-015, SF**


	25. THaB arc 2 pt 9

**Well, it's been a while… yeah... sorry bout that XD  
**

 ** **Hello, everybody! YES! I am back to writing ThaB! (for now. maybe.) , here is Arc 2 Pt 9, and here's a few announcements before it begins.**  
 **Thanks to neyo532, and not telling the unknown, for following the story! Once again I would like to thank you all for reading! Tell me how you feel about the story in a review. And enjoy!**  
**

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"That can wait 'till later. Until then, let's go to the shop," Isaac stated as he walked into the room adjacent to the shop.

"So if this is a shop, what do they usually sell?" Cain questioned, yet Isaac just shrugged and stood by the shop door.

"We can find out through this door," he stated as they both walked in. Once again, Isaac and Cain were awed by the staggering amount of useless junk that seemed to go up for a hundred feet before reaching blackness. After a second, Isaac set his gaze upon the solidified shopkeeper, then the items with chalked numbers beside them.

"What's in store today?" Isaac said with careful curiosity, then peered around. On the very left was a blue heart, and red chalk scrawled in front of it stated it cost three pennies. Isaac fished three pennies out of his pocket. Next to the blue heart was a battery. _P_ _robably need that later…_ Next was a silver cube with a golden stripe crossed through the middle of each face, seemingly wrapping around it, and on its top a slot the size of a coin lay parallel with the gold stripe. While Isaac was curious of the use of this item, it cost a high 15 cents.

"Hey, Cain?"

Cain looked over from the shelf of useless trinkets.

"Want this?" Isaac asked, and Cain walked up and got a good look. He wasn't sure of its purpose, so he inspected it, picked it up, and moved it around before asking, "How much do you have?"Isaac felt through his pockets.

"Er… about twenty-two cents. Why?" Cain went into It's enough, but I have a feeling these coins have more value than we think. Yet, this item could also have value... He blinked and looked blankly at the wall for a second before sitting down and taking off his backpack. He dug through the contents; several smaller bags he would open later, a few uninteresting trinkets, some gadgets, papers... He was approaching the bottom of the backpack when a bag inside moved with the sound of shuffling metal - lots of it. Smiling, he pulled out the bag that had the metal in it. It was a faded teal bag with a coin with the penny's trademark 'c' in the center. With Isaac peering over his shoulder in anticipation, he opened the bag. A gargantuan assortment of coins ranging from dollar coins to pennies, and everything in between. He took a handful of coins and studied them, all being pennies. Isaac's jaw hung open,

"Oh my god..." was all he was able to mumble as Cain stood proudly.

"Okay...so how does this work?" Isaac nodded and took a single coin from his hands, and, using his thumb, flicked it into the air. When the coin came down, it disappeared in a golden flash of light. Cain followed in suit by lobbing the handful of coins towards the silver box, all of them disappeared in a large golden flash, and for a few seconds, nothing happened. Cain looked worried, but Isaac just smiled, Cain was about to reach into the bag to grab a few more coins when Isaac blocked him with his arm and signaled towards the box, the earth beneath the two shook lightly as a small stone pedestal rose from the ground and the box hovered above it.

"What is that?" Cain asked as Isaac walked up to it like nothing happened. They read the standard bronze placard.

"Uh...magic fingers. Magic fingers?" He read the subtext. "Pay to play." Cain picked it up.

"What does it do?" Cain asked to himself when he saw a blue flash in his left eye. Siera chimed in. "I can help with that. Just hold it still or rotate it slowly."  
Cain's iris turned blue as a grid of the same color seemed to scan the box. After the grid disappeared, Siera continued. "Scan complete. I can show you the bigger picture. Would you like to see what it does?" Cain shrugged.

"Why not?" Text appeared, stating 'Look at a flat wall.' Cain motioned Isaac outside and looked at the flat wall to the left, his iris opening slightly and the laser grid replacing itself with a picture of the item. Cain held it in his hand, and some informational text floated to the right.

"Magic Fingers, or _Catalytic Currency Converter_ (3C), was co-developed by Oddball Combat corporation (part of the NT league), as a tool for destruction. It was designed to be both accurate and devastating, with options ranging from long range to CQC to tank to sniper, and more. It was designed to be efficient against everything. One of the main reasons it was mostly developed by Oddball was because of it's ammo type; currency of any type. Its versatility and efficiency in its designated field: warfare."  
After reading the text, Isaac smiled at Cain.

"And you ask me what I can do with fire, huh?"Cain ignored him, too interested in this new object.

"How much damage does it do?"Siera replied,

"It depends on the value of the coin." Cain nodded in understanding and motioned for Isaac to follow him as he left the shop. They traversed a few rooms until they found one that had a pacer in it, a room they obviously hadn't cleared. Cain reached into his bag and pulled out a handful of change, and he took a penny, putting it into the coin slot. As if it had not been used in a while, the golden band glowed orange for a second and shook, before a futuristic muzzle flash came out and shot a bolt of orange energy at the pacer. The pacer stumbled back and turned towards Isaac and Cain. Cain grinned evilly, gingerly placing another penny in the box. Another orange bolt flew out and slammed into the pacer, knocking it backward.

"Let's try something more interesting," Cain stated mischievously before putting a nickel into the box. The box, now cleared out from being used, glowed for less time before shooting a bolt 5 times the size of the one generated by the penny, and with seemingly double the speed. It slammed into the pacer, wiping everything clean off and leaving its arms and legs. Cain walked back towards the shop in satisfaction, yet Isaac looked at the remains of the pacer, slightly mortified.

"eugch" Isaac spat out as a disgusting taste caught in his throat, and he shivered before turning and following Cain.

Back at the shop, they decided to get a look at the rest of the items, yet nothing piqued their interest, so they left. Isaac felt in a talking mood.

"So. where do you come from?" Isaac asked.

"A rich family, believe it or not. You?" Cain looked to Isaac as they walked. Isaac shrugged, but as he spoke, it was somber.

"Just a small, pretty average town. Nothing interesting aside from the fact my mother tried to kill me." Cain stopped, a wide eyed grimace plastered on his face. As Isaac turned to look at him, Cain smiled simply to be polite.

"What?" Isaac scoffed in slight anger. Cain waved him off, laughing as he spoke.

"Nothing, I thought that detail was interesting, but who am I kidding! I was nearly killed for money." Isaac looked to Cain in anticipation as they continued walking again.

"How much?" Cain smiled and paused.

"One hundred thousand dollars." Although Isaac stared in astonishment, Cain shrugged.

"One hundred thousand dollars is more like hundred dollar bill in comparison to what our family makes total."  
Isaac shook off the fact that he'd been walking next to a millionaire and thought about what else to say, when the ground abruptly began to shake lightly but ominously. The duo froze, but the shaking went away. Cain remained still, but Isaac continued to try to talk. Cain put his finger to his mouth and shushed him in annoyance. Cain wiped his arm across his forehead, then gently put his arm in the air. In curiosity, Isaac did the same, and immediately the nerves in his arm picked up what felt like a draft. Cain nodded slowly and pointed to the left.

"Come on."

Before Isaac could protest, he ran off. Isaac shrugged. _H_ _e seems to know more than I do, so who am I to question him?_ He sprinted to catch up. Isaac and Cain cleared more rooms toward the draft until they felt the inevitable drag of exhaustion and the tug of tiredness on their eyelids. They found a room with high rocks and reluctantly fell asleep.

Their sleep was not peaceful.

Both Isaac and Cain stood in a long, blank, dark hallway. Isaac shrugged and looked to Cain, who shrugged back. A good distance away, light showed on the floor below a doorway. Isaac pointed and they strode towards it. As they approached the doorway, distant whispering could be heard, sadness in the voice. As the doorway became a stone's throw away, white filled their vision. Cain was the first to awake from the short lived sleep, and his eyes narrowed, focusing on something. Isaac got up and stood beside him, his ears picking what Cain was focusing on.

"Hear that?" Cain asked, still attentive to his surroundings.

"Who wouldn't? It's the loudest whispering I've heard," Isaac responded harshly in his tired voice.

"Exactly. Ready?" Cain requested with almost a warning tone as he grabbed his backpack and slung it over his shoulders. After shaking himself awake, As Isaac responded,

"Yep," they both took off, yet quietly and cautiously. Though the dungeon was lit like normal, it seemed and even felt darker. With the sad voice slowly growing louder, Isaac began to feel uneasy.

-=elsewhere...=-

A girl sat huddled in a corner sobbing, her senses blocked out by the betrayal piercing her heart. Eventually she managed to quiet down a little, and her ears picked up the sound of voices in the distance calling out. The torches abruptly put out from a burst of wind the cave-in caused, and she huddled tighter against the rocks despite the uncomfortable poking of them. The voices grew closer, until they seemed right outside her door. _Are they here to kill me? Who are they? How are they here? Why are they near me?_ She snapped away from her thoughts when she heard footsteps enter the room, only a few yards away, and she froze completely.

"I can't see a darn thing in here." The voice was male, and it sounded uneasy.

"I'm covered." Another male voice, this one deeper, laughed heartily.

"Shut it, Cain," the higher voice spoke playfully, but the uneasiness made his voice waver. She peeked out from behind the pile of rocks she hid behind.

"Well, I don't have night vision, so I'm lighting up the area," he continued. She stared at the boy through the darkness, but his face was hidden behind the blackness of a hood, when an ember erupted from his hand. He held it higher as it glowed brighter, revealing the two boys. The one with the black hoodie and higher voice also had beige shorts, and was shorter than the other boy. The other one, who she had heard was named Cain, was maybe 4 inches taller than the boy with the hoodie, had a basic burnt orange color shirt on, black shorts, and seemed to have a thicker frame. She immediately noticed the shiny silver box held tightly in his right hand, and the unnatural red glow from his left 'eye'.

"What happened here?" the boy with the hoodie began quizzically. Cain responded.

"Looks like another cave-in." The boy with the hoodie asked after a second,

"What about the voice we heard?" _Me… they're talking about me,_ the girl thought.

"I don't know," the hooded boy asked with genuine worry.

"Do you think the pacers got them? I mean, if we heard and felt the cave-in… who's to say they didn't, too?" Cain turned to the hooded boy and sighed. _Pacers? What are pacers?_ the girl thought. Cain paused.

"Isaac, I know we need as many people we can get to help get out of this place, whatever this place is, but we may not be able to save all of those that we meet." He paused again, then continued in a downcast tone.

"Who knows, we may be the only two people here. Or the two living ones, at least."  
Isaac nodded sadly, then the duo turned towards the door and walked slowly. _This may be my only chance. I don't know where I am, my only path back is blocked, and I need to survive… and what about the 'pacers'?_ As the war raged on in the girls mind, she quickly decided it was now or never, even if she didn't know the outcome, or even whether the people wanted to kill her or help her to freedom. She bit back all of her fear and quietly called.

"Hello?"

The two froze in their tracks, and turned towards the source of the noise slowly; from behind a pile of rocks, she peeked out. She had tear-stained eyes and blonde curly hair that fell to her shoulders. Isaac slowly inched his way towards her and spoke quietly.

"Hello...we're not here to hurt you." Trying to be friendly, the girl spoke with a hushed yet polite voice.

"Who are you two?"

Isaac smiled with the knowledge that she wanted to be friendly. With a burst of excitement, he spoke. "I'm Isaac! That's Cain over there," he stated as he pointed to Cain, who smiled and waved. Cain seemed more curious rather than excited.

"What's your name? How'd you get down here?" he questioned. She looked to the ground, but smiled and looked up again.

"I'm Magdalene, or Maggy. Getting here..." She sighed.

"...is a long story." **  
**

* * *

 ** **Once again, sorry for the extremely long wait. all the same, i hope you enjoyed this new part of To Hell and Back. Review Fav, and follow, it means a lot, and it gives me great motivation to continue. thank you all for reading, when I get the chance i will write part 10.****

 **until next time!**


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